Webinar series @ BSF – IIHS Library Exhibition
Webinar #1 || 4 – 5PM IST || 28 Nov 2024
Are cities “The Room of Requirement” for opportunistic animals?
Nishant Kumar
Globally, multiple opportunistic taxa, such as kites, macaques, street dogs and livestock, often partake of the human niche, showcasing variable adherence to human norms and practices. Most humans (~65%) now reside in urban centres, which collectively comprise a mere 4% of the total landmass on Earth. Paradoxically, human activities impact >70% of the global terrestrial environment. This situation gives rise to a complex and multifaceted web of human-animal interactions. Such cross-species ties are often characterised by tensions and conflicts. Our research in Delhi focuses on the eco-evolutionary processes underpinning such cross-species co-cultural ties. We are studying how opportunistic (facultative) scavengers exploit food-subsidies that are predictably dispersed in the form of garbage, landfills and ritual feeding sites. Our research concerns how this predictable distribution of resources along the urban gradient influences behavioural innovations in animals and humans. These interactions often involve significant adaptations or co-option of behavioural and morphological traits, influencing social dynamics and demographic structures. Historically, these interactions have resulted in wildlife providing important services to humans. Unfortunately, however, such interactions can also easily turn negative, such as when actions aimed at promoting nonhuman lives lead to conflicts, loss of property and invaluable lives of all contestants, and the spread of zoonotic diseases. human–avian scavengers’ coexistence in South Asia represents a distinctive fusion of adopted Western infrastructure and unique Indian ethos. In this webinar, I will emphasise why transdisciplinary methodologies are indispensable to comprehend coexistence, while designing and administering vibrant and ‘animated’ tropical cities.
Nishant Kumar is a faculty member at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, and a DBT/Wellcome Trust UK India Alliance Fellow at Oxford University’s Biology Department (overseas host), where he completed his D.Phil. His team, THINKPAWS, studies resident and migratory commensals/wildlife in Delhi to understand human-animal interactions and zoonotic disease risks using a One Health approach. Nishant also promotes open science and innovative public engagement with science. He integrates natural and social sciences with humanities to address global challenges, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration for human-animal coexistence
Webinar #2 || 4 – 5 PM IST || 05 Dec 2024
Apples and Oranges: A birds’ perspective on native and introduced plant species in the city
Purabi Deshpande
Cities all over the world host a wide variety of introduced plant species. Introduced species that become harmful invasive species are studied extensively, but others are not paid as much attention. I will present work I have undertaken in two cities, Bangalore and Helsinki, Finland, on the interaction of native birds with native and introduced plant species in the city. Both the cities are facing the brunt of climate change and urbanisation at different levels and studying these animal-plant interactions helps give us an idea of how to maintain avian diversity in these cities in the future along with giving an idea about the invasion potential of the introduced plant species.
Purabi Deshpande is currently a post doctoral researcher at the University of Turku in Finland. She is broadly interested in urban ecology and how species interactions are altered by the effect of human presence. Purabi graduated with a PhD in wildlife biology from the University of Helsinki in August 2023. Her PhD focused on the interaction of urbanisation and climate change on birds and especially birds in urban areas. Purabi is a Bangalore girl! Her interest in ecology started through joining a bird watching group in Bangalore and she did her Bachelor’s studies at St. Josephs’ College.
Webinar #3 || 4 -5 PM IST || 12 Dec 2024
Adapting to a rapidly changing world: stories from two ends of the earth
Anuradha Batabyal
Organisms can cope with novel challenges by modifying their behaviour, physiology, morphology and cognition. In today’s world, however, anthropogenic activities, such as urbanisation and related climatic changes rapidly and dramatically change natural environments, altering habitats, as well as shifting resources and predator communities. To understand the impacts of urbanisation and other stressors in the ecosystem on phenotypic traits of animals, I studied, social and survival strategies of the Indian rock agama (rock lizard), Psammophilus dorsalis and the neuroethology and molecular physiology of the great pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Even though these two systems occur in very different landscapes from the rocky hills and urban spaces in Bengaluru to the extreme climatic conditions of the rocky mountains in Canada, they showcase some of the adaptive strategies that organisms evolve to survive in a changing landscape. In this session, I will give a glimpse of the wonders that these two species are in terms of their colour changing abilities to learning about complexities in nature in the hope of inspiring citizens to pay more attention to the wildlife in the city.
Dr. Anuradha Batabyal grew up in the beautiful city of Kolkata, India. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences at FLAME University, India where she teaches Ecology, Evolution, Animal behaviour and Environmental Studies and continues with her varied research ideas as well. Her expertise lies in the field of evolutionary behavioural ecology and neuroethology and cognition.
To date, Dr. Batabyal has published over 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts in International Journals and presented her work at multiple national and international conferences. She has received several national and international grants for her research. She serves as a reviewer for various international journals and currently is the special editor for Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science. She has been recently honored by a gecko species being named after her for her contributions to the field of herpetology. This lizard Cnemaspis anuradhae is found in Palani hills in Western Ghats and has been discovered by Khandekar et al 2024. (Khandekar, A., Thackeray, T., & Agarwal, I.. Zootaxa, 5469(1), 1-70.). They named the species in honor of Dr. Batabyal. Dr. Batabyal is also passionate to teach and her teaching philosophy is based on an environment rich in mutual respect, collaboration, and support.
Her interest lies in science outreach and integrating the concepts of learning and memory into pedagogical principles. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking and painting. To know more about her visit her webpage: https://anuradhabatabyal.weebly.com/
Webinar #4 || 4 -5 PM IST || 19 Dec 2024
Vilayati keekar – The Making of an Invasive Species
Nivedita Tuli
This talk investigates how a tree species came to be identified as an invasive, and the different meanings this term holds for citizen environmentalists, restoration practitioners, policy-makers, law-makers and bureaucrats. This project rests on a multispecies ethnography conducted by the speaker over three years in the Delhi Ridge Reserved Forest, as an employee of the state forest department. The story of vilayati keekar holds lessons for other cities in India and beyond.
Nivedita Tuli is an ecologist and educator. She is working with the Hyderabad Urban Lab (HUL) Foundation, building a new urban ecology and nature education programme – Project Critterabad. The project aims to help Hyderabadis (particularly children) cultivate the art of noticing “critters” – plants, animals, fungi, slime molds, rocks, communities, individuals. Prior to joining HUL, Nivedita worked for three years with the forest bureaucracy at the state level and at the central level in Delhi
