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Dr. Dhritiman Das is a scientisit at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust studying the world's smallest pig - the Pygmy Hog. This highly endangered species is found in the grasslands of Assam, with Manas and Kaziranga National Parks being strongholds. Durrell is working extensive loss of the their grassland habitat, alongside the reintroduction of captive bred populations into the wild.
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On Episode 15, I interview Vance Martin, looking back on his 40 years as president of The Wild Foundation. We cover a wide breadth of conservation topics, including rewilding, Nature Needs Half, COP15 and the roles of indeginious communities in conservation. Tune in to also learn about various of The Wild Foundation's intiatives, including the Rewilding Alliance, the Wolrd Wilderness Campagin and Coalition Wild.
The Think Wildlife Podcast is an intiaitve under Think Wildlife Foundation, a student led organization aiming to understand the illegal wildlife trade while also incentivising conservation through alternative livelihood projects.
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India has more than doubled her tiger population since 2010. While this is certainly great news, it is still too early to celebrate. Unfortunately, a population recovery has been met with significant habitat destruction and forest fragmentation. Other than preventing consistent, long term gene flow, this encourages human tiger conflict. A lack of natural habitat and prey, results in tigers predating on livestock and sometimes, even humans. Retaliation is inevitable, and famous, apparent man eating tigers, such as Avni, have been put down for this. Currently, efforts are being made around India to mitigate human tiger conflict.
One of the most prominent solutions is by improving the lives of indeginious communities, to minimise the long term financial costs of the conflict, while also allowing communities to voluntaringly resettle away from reserves. The Last Wildnerness Foundation is one such organization which is working at the grassroot level, directly with indeginious communities to prevent conflict.
In Episode 14, Vidya Venkatesh, the director of LWF talks about the intricasies of human tiger conflict, the potential of alternative livliehoods for conservation and their amazing work in uplifting the Baiga people, a community ostracized for formerly being poachers. In fact, we at Think Wildlife Foundation are supporting this project by providing them with a platform to go online!
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While many are celebrating the majestic recovery of the Asiatic Lion from the brink of extinction, it is still too early to celebrate. Politics is currently stalling the conservation of lions in India, while the illegal wildlife trade threatens their African counterparts, which truly are struggling. Habitat loss and the depletion of natural prey are also major contributing factors due this concerning population decline.
In Episode 13, Peter Lindsey, the Director of the Lion Recovery Fund (Wildlife Conservation Network), elaborates on these threats. The issue of canned hunting is also touche upon. Lastly, we talk about a few of the exciting lion conservation projects across Africa.
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Oceans are the forerunners in our fight against climate change. Unfortunately, we are destroying our marine ecosystems. Overfishing, pollution and unplanned development has impacted these sensitive ecoystems significantly. In episode 12, with Akansha Tiwari, we talk about the importance of marine ecosystems, the ecological impact of marine debris and potential solutions.
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In just over 30 years, the United Nations predicts that the world population will reach 10 billion. While the current biodiversity and climate crisis is the doing of forgone generations, it is the youth of today who will be facing the brunt of environment destruction. Yet, they have the potential to create significant change. It is for this reason that Patrick Arnold founded 10 Billion Strong. With the aim to invest in and provide environmental education, the organization hopes that these programs will empower the youth to drive, both immediate and long term, impact in communities through sustainability-focused action and policy changes.
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The Sacred Groves provides a platform for environmentally sensitive individuals to support the conservation of indigenous natural forests and biodiverse habitats globaly. Using advanced analytics, smart contracting and contempary forest management practices, these forests will come under the protection of millions of inspired individuals.
In Episode 10, we speak to Monisha Krishna about the idea behind The Sacred Groves, the challenges and problems of restoration, and why preservation is as important as restoration.
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Only 3% of India's land surface is classified as a Protected Area. It is no surprise, therefore, that large populations of megafauna, including wolves, elephants, leopards and even lions, are found outside wildlife sanctuaries. Human wildlife conflict is inevitable. To counter this, a private-public model, much like what exists in the African continent, is required to protect India's wildlife. One such example if the Save Animal Intiative in the Kodagu District of Karnataka. Touted as India's first private wildlife sanctuary was founded by Dr. Anil Kumar Malhotra and his wife, Pamela Malhotra in 1991. What started as 55 acres sanctuary has expanded to over 300 acres. The sanctuary is now home to tigers, leopards, elephants, gaur and various species of hornbills.
In Episode 9, I talk to cofounder, Pamela, about the history of this sanctuary and how the couple bought and restored degraded agricultural land into pristine tropical rainforest. We also discuss the the potential of private public partnership, the future for ecological restoration and rewilding in India and associated challenges..
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The Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment is one of India's leading research institutes in conservation biology and ecology. In 2022, this presitigious institute celebrated its 25th aniversary. It was around this time when we spoke to Vamsidhar Pothula, the Chief Operating Officer of ATREE, about the organization's vision for conservation education and research, the importance conservation outreach and his experiences transitioning from the corporate sector to conservation.
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In Episode 7, join hosts Anish, as he speaks to Nikita Dhawan on her very ambitious Free Shankar Campaign. Shankar is India's only African Elephant, who is currently in captivity at Delhi Zoo. Like 3,000 other captive elephants in India, Shankar suffers severly from isolation, poor living conditions and countless health issues. Nikita's ambitious project hopes to, first, release Shankr from Delhi Zoo, and then transport him to a rehablitation centre in Africa. The campaign has recieved overwhelming support in the form of an online petition. In fact, the case is also being heard at the Supreme Court. This is certainly a very valiant effort from Nikita, who at such a tender age.
Nikita is the founder of Youth For Animals, a student led animal activism group. Other than fighting for Shankar, she is also the Youth Ambassador for the Born Free Foundation and an upcoming student at Stamford University.
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Our guest for Episode 6 of Think Wildlife Podcast is Adam Barlow, founder and Executive Director of WildTeam Conservation, one of the leading conservation educational platforms in the world. Prior to WildTeams, Adam conducted extensive research on the tigers of Sunderbans, while also leading various conservation projects around South Asia. It was during this period, that he realized academics lacked the appropiate skillsets required to implement practical conservation strategies in real life. This inspired him to launch WildTeam, which in 10 years has upskilled over 1,400 conservationists and academics with the relevant conservation skills, including project management, stakeholder engagement and fundraising. This episode is particularly useful for those wishing to enter the field of conservation. Adam talks about the skills required and how early career conservationists, who may not neccessary have the neccessary academic qualifications, can prepare themselves for the industry.
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There are between 3,000 and 4,000 elephants in captivity in India. Despite their cultural reverence as Lord Ganesha, these elephants are exploited to the core. From being stolen from their wild families as calves, to being beaten to submission and worked tirelessly: begging on streets, giving tourist rides or ‘working’ in temples. India’s captive elephants do not live happy lives, mostly their lives are ones of abuse and loneliness.
However, all hopes are not lost. Since 1995 Wildlife SOS has been doing a great job in rescuing captive elephants from these horrific conditions, providing both medical and psychological rehabilitation for them at their Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura. Beyond that, they eradicated, over a ten year period, the use of ‘Dancing Bears’ for entertainment purposes, also providing them with rehabilitation across their centres.
In Episode 5, we speak to Kartick Satyanarayan, one of the co-founders of Wildlife SOS about the plight of India's captive elephants, his vision for Wildlife SOS and also some scary elephant rescue stories!
One special elephant at their centre is Pari, a begging elephant that Wildlife SOS rescued in 2022. Currently, Think Wildlife Foundation is donating 25% of the profits from our merchandise sales to Wildlife SOS for Pari's care and rehab.
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In the late 20th Century, India's vulture population collapsed. Over 90% of the vulture population across South Asia was decimated. This led to an ecological collapse and a public health disaster. The lack of such a power scavenger meant carcasses of livestock and wildlife were left untouched. Other than being a food source for feral dogs, these rotting carcases became the breeding ground of various bacterias and pathogens. It was through this mechanism, that the exploding population of feral dogs became a transmittor of deadly diseases, such as rabies, to humans and other wildlife.
Despite, such glaring evidence of the impact of ecology on public health, there has been minimal effort to prevent the transmission of zoonotic disease. The illegal wildlife trade has continued to prosper, eventually leading to the devestating covid 19 pandemic. Moreover, humans have also been found to transmit diseases, such as TB, to wildlife in captivity, especially elephants.
In Episode 4, we host Bindu Raghavan to talk about the impact of the vulture crisis and the feral dog menance on public health, emerging zoonotic diseases, lessons from covid 19 and a career in wildlife health. Bindu is one of the Principal Scientists at the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bengaluru India. She has rich academic history in the field of epidemology and wildlife ecology from various prestigious institutes, including the Wildlife Institute of India and Washington State University.
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In India, one of the most established and renowned voices in the field of conservation is none other than Bittu Saghal. Despite begining his career as an advertising professional, Bittu is better known for founding the well reputated conservation magazine, Sanctuary Asia, in 1981. Inspired by the great Fateh Singh Ratore, Sanctuary Asia has captured millions of people around India with its breathtaking conservational journalism. In 2015, the intiative expanded to a formal establishment in the form of Sanctuary Nature Foundation, which has carried out immense outreach. This includes their Muds on Boots and Community Owned Community Operated Nature projects. In 2000, Bittu also launched the Kids for Tigers program, a highly successful educational outreach program, which managed to involve over a million school children in conservation.
In Episode 3, Bittu talks about the various projects he has launched over his flamboyant career. He also talks about the importance of community engagement in conservation, rewilding and his opinions of India's cheetah reintroduction.
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Mongabay is by far one of the most prominent and larger conservation news outlets in the world. Founded, in 1999 by Rhett Ayer Butler, the non profit now has over 800 correspondonts in 700 countries and produces journalism in English, Hindi, French, Spanish, Indonesian and Portugeese. Recently, Mongabay crossed a billion lifetime views. This has contributed significantly to environmental awarness and popularizing conservation research. However, Mongabay has played a far more substansial role in upholding environmental justice across the world. By exposing environmental crimes, their journalism has protected the critical habitats of endangered species, including tigers, organutans and chimpanzees, from illegal mining, corruption and deforestation.
Join us in Episode 2 of the Think Wildlife Podcast, as Rhett speaks about his vision for Mongabay, advice for upcoming environmental journalists and tackling propoganda and threats to unbiased reporting.
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Welcome to The Think Wildlife Podcast. In our first episode, join our hosts, Anish Banerjee, as he speaks to Stuart Chapman about his cat quest, the success of TX2, the future of tiger conservation and threats faced by the smaller felines. Stuart Chapman is a renowned conservationist with over three decade of experience, leading many prominent WWF projects in the Indochina region. This includes the Heart of Borneo and Tigers Alive Initiative. He is on a highly ambitious mission to spot all 40 species of cat in the wild. He has marked off 27 species and is currently in search off the recovering Eurasian Lynx and the elusive Mainland Clouded Leopard.
Think Wildlife Foundation was founded by universities in 2020, with the aim of involving indegeinious communities in conservation and conducting research and outreach on the illegal wildlife trade. Currently, TWF is providing a platform for conservation enterprise and alternative livelihood to expand through the use of e-commerce.
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