What got you interested in ecology and conservation?

It’s safe to say my ecology and conservation journey started with observing various animals in my garden, in a modest bungalow in Nagpur, Maharashtra. At four or five years of age, my time was equally divided between sitting for hours in my garden, enthralled, as a multitude of animals (mostly birds) flitted, darted, and pirouetted through the numerous fruiting trees and flowering bushes we had, and furiously combing through the different guides that had been procured for me from the local library. I have always had a special interest in birds, and I hoped to one day be able to see them all, from the hoatzin to the cock-of-the-rock, to the multiple different birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea. The earliest guide to birds I owned was The Book of Indian Birds (1996 print) by Salim Ali, gifted to me by my parents; years later in a little bookstore in Liverpool, U.K., while on my scholarship to study in the U.K., I would encounter a first edition from 1979 – both of these are treasured possessions. 

My mother in particular went out of her way to figure out ways for me to cultivate my interest in birds and in conservation in general – this wasn’t easy, growing up in India in the 90s, when the concept of conservation was only just beginning to take root in the general public consciousness. From organising birding trips to lakes on the outskirts of my city, to requesting local forest department officials to include me in censuses for the Critically Endangered (CR) Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps), several experiences during my childhood were made possible thanks to her.

Additionally, on annual summer vacations to Mumbai, I inculcated a love for the marine and coastal environments, and this laid the foundation for the academic degrees I would eventually pursue, and the places (islands) I would eventually work in.

Could you tell us a bit about the work you do in Príncipe?

As a secondee from FFI to FP, a large part of my role is focused on supporting FP with whatever needs they may have with doing conservation ‘on the ground’. When I started working in Príncipe in 2022, I stepped in as the Terrestrial Programme Manager for FP, overseeing their plethora of different terrestrial conservation projects, which included working with the CR Príncipe Thrush (Turdus Xanthorhynchus), while also supporting with some of their marine projects, including the biannual seabird monitoring visits to the Tinhosas islets.

Over time, though, my role has evolved to provide more institutional support, such as identifying key needs on an organisational level, helping align fundraising with the organisational vision and mission, and ensuring adherence to the various requirements from different funders. I also advise FP on strategies to engage with key partners (both organisations and individuals) to enhance the already excellent conservation work they are doing in Príncipe.

While based on the island, I have been fortunate to have been selected for the prestigious Kinship Conservation Fellowship by the Kinship Foundation (in 2024), and the Conservation and Communities Fellowship by the Global Diversity Foundation (in 2023), which have significantly helped inform the work I do.

What have been some of the greatest highs and challenges of your career so far?

It is always a high to witness the fruition of one’s hard work, particularly in conservation, when timelines for ‘success’ can be very long. Both in Timor-Leste, where I worked previously, and in São Tomé and Príncipe, I have been fortunate to have witnessed the officialisation of marine protected areas, through projects that I have led and been involved in. My work has taken me to many different islands around the world (for which I am very grateful to the Foundation for my 2015 Ravi Sankaran Fellowship), and it has been a privilege not only to witness some incredible biodiversity, both above land and underwater, but also to learn from local community members, who carry deep knowledge about the ecosystems they interact with. In every place I worked, I have endeavoured to learn the locally spoken language, and this has been invaluable in understanding cultural contexts and backgrounds, which has helped tremendously in the conservation work I do.

In a mentorship capacity, I am glad to be able to support young conservationists in the pursuit of their ambitions in the field – from a former Timorese colleague heading to the U.S. through a fully-funded scholarship to pursue his undergraduate degree in conservation, to two São Toméan colleagues presenting their work with sea turtles at a sea turtle symposium in Ghana, it is a joy to watch young conservationists come into their own.

Conservation, however, is not a glamourous field, and there are always challenges, ranging from bureaucracy, to donor restrictions, to parachute science, and I have faced each of these in my work, to varying degrees.

What would your advice be, to budding conservationists seeking to pursue this professionally?

I would suggest engaging with conservation in any way possible, whether by reading books or watching documentaries, or by volunteering at conservation organisations, or grouping together with like-minded people to go bird-watching on weekends.

I would also suggest documenting everything – get into the practice of making notes about your local wildlife. What changes do you see in a bird species’ behaviour over the year? How does the local wildlife interact with each other? Are there certain flowers that butterflies prefer over others? This is the basis to develop a keen inquiring mind into conservation.

What do you wish more people knew about conservation in general?

There is a common misconception that one needs to have studied biology or the sciences to be a conservationist. However, a good conservationist can come from anywhere – it is a truly multidisciplinary field! There are so many ways in which a background in law, economics, the creative arts, to name a few, can be leveraged to effect conservation, and each of these fields is critical towards developing a holistic conservation space, much like different pieces of a jigsaw puzzle coming together to form a whole!

What would you like to explore next?

In both my current, as well as previous organisations, I have been strongly involved in DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) endeavours. Even today, a lot of conservation efforts globally are rooted in prejudice and colonialism.  For the longest time, the Western world has been a gatekeeper of conservation practices, and largely overlooked LEK (Local Ecological Knowledge). Looking back to my childhood, and at people who inspired me on my journey, I find it difficult to come up with BIPOC (Brown, Indigenous, Persons of Colour) conservationists - even Salim Ali, whose book I mentioned earlier, did not have the same level of recognition in my country while I was growing up, as Sir David Attenborough. 

I am now looking to explore ways to integrate DEIJ in conservation, and in pursuit of this, both a Ph.D. and establishing my own organisation are potentially on the cards.