Speakers
With over 1,200 species, India has long been a land alive with birdsong. This discussion will explore why our birds are slipping away, lost to vanishing habitats, pesticide use, hunting, and to the hard lines of power cables and dams that redraw the land. What might it take to keep them here?
Some absences, like that of the Great Indian Bustard and White-bellied Heron, are stark. But others are quieter, easier to miss. Birds once “common,” like drongos and rollers, no longer gather as they did. Nightjars call less often from the forest’s edge. And the dawn chorus, once a bright, swelling thread stitching night to morning, softens, frays, and fades.
Where have these birds gone? What does their silence mean for us? And can they be saved?
In collaboration with :
Venue: Auditorium
Speakers
Asad R Rahmani
Asad R Rahmani is former Director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), where he now serves as a Board member. He is Scientific Consultant to The Corbett Foundation and Hem Chandra Mahindra Trust, and has served on various MoEF committees. He has written 28 books, many scientific papers, and over 450 popular articles on nature conservation. He was Global Council member of BirdLife International, UK, and Chairman of BirdLife Asia Council (2006–2013), and was Executive Editor of the Journal of BNHS and Editor of Hornbill, Mistnet, and Buceros.
Suhel Quader
Suhel Quader works with the Education and Public Engagement programme of the Nature Conservation Foundation, leading efforts to bring people closer to nature through communications, education, and citizen science. He is one of the convenors of the State of India’s Birds partnership, which publishes a periodic assessment of the conservation status of nearly all bird species inhabiting the country. He is happiest outdoors, listening to and looking for trees, birds, and other creatures around him.
Shweta Taneja
Shweta Taneja is an award-winning author and journalist who writes at the intersection of science, nature, and society. A technology journalist at Hindustan Times, her ten books span science and speculative fiction, including her latest, The Big Book of Wild Poop. When not writing, she watches birds. Find her at @shwetawrites.
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