Dr Monika Koul
Saluting women: daunting and valiant than ever There is no limit to what we as women.
International Womens day was celebrated every year on March 8 across the world and the theme of the year 2017 was, “Be Bold for the Change”. The women have really come out of their shells and are ruling the world and making mark in every domain of life. For past two decades, the role of women has been acknowledged in management of human resources, politics, soft skills, computers and other frontier areas of biology. However, in some fields where valor, bravery and fearlessness determine the success in the field, their contributions have beenunderestimated. It is only in last few years women are making their presence felt in non-conventional fields. It is imperative for all of us to acknowledge and celebrate the unflinching, gusty and courageous women who walk into the wild harbors and corridors and confront the challenges and threats posed by big animals mostly carnivores. Yes, women who work as wild life biologists, wild park managers and wild life photographers. Although women have made an incredible impact in research area in biological sciences but their contributions to wildlife conservation often go unrecognized. Women are leaders in the conservation field and climate action movement through their powerful roles as business owners, scientists, educators,
NGO leaders, writers, and activists.
At the community level women have a tight relationship with natural resources and are well positioned to care for their sustainable management. There are women who deal in the business of guts, grit and grime. These women are not afraid of anything. They walk alone, risk their lives to study anthropophagous cannibals. They are working hard towards protecting the state’s vulnerable lions, tigers and other big cats in dense forests. Lions, leopards and tigers are considered to be the key stone species of forest ecosystems and insights into their life cycle strategies, behavior and reproduction and survival is important to plan the conservation strategies for these animals. Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant is a large carnivore ecologist with an expertise in statistical modeling. She is investigating how anthropogenic factors can influence the spatial patterns of carnivore behavior and ecology. Her current focus is on understanding the ecological and social drivers of human-carnivore conflict, and the influence of fine-scale human activity on connectivity of suitable carnivore habitat. Day in and day out she wades the fierce jungles and risks her life without a bit of anxiety. Hats off to her for her courage and wits. Even the macho men shiver at the sight of these big cats. Wangari Maathai, an environmental and political activist born in Nairobi, Kenya has contributed a lot in the field of conservation biology. For her contribution to environment, sustainable development, stand for democracy and peace she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
For their dedication and courage, these days the forest rangers are preferred to be women in many countries. Selected after a rigorous process that includes both physical endurance and aptitude tests, their skills have been whittled and polished to transform them into daunting protectors of the wild. In their olive-khaki uniforms, they patrol pathless miles in search of poachers and snares, and spend their free time training in hand to hand combat with paramilitary commandos. Indian women have crossed all the barriers and are here to stay in every field. Their contribution to basic science, rocket science, technology and computer science is being acknowledged world over. In the field of wild life conservation as biologists, sociologists and nature photographers is also immense. We all know Dr Krithi K. Karanth’s contribution and recognition of her contribution by various national and international agencies. She is India’s poster lady for wildlife conservation, the recipient of huge grant from National Geographic Society to assess human-wildlife conflicts in five parks of India’s Western Ghats. She was awarded Ramanujan fellowship from 2011-2016 by the Indian government’s Department of Science and Technology. She has received the Cambridge award, Society for Conservation Biology Best Student Award, Wildlife Conservation Award, Duke Outstanding Paper and other honors. She currently works with the Centre for Wildlife Studies, National Centre for Biological Sciences and Columbia University. Another Indian woman whose work is being acknowledged on international platform is Tasneem Khan who lives in the Andaman and Nicobar Island as part of their environmental team (ANET). Her work is with coastal habitats that include reef systems, intertidal areas, mangroves and littoral forests which is the habitat of many carnivores.
She enters into the twilight zone and has endurance to negotiate the low oxygen content in aquatic ecosystems with rigorous training and is contributing a lot to understanding of dynamics in these ecosystems. Rithika Ramaswamy, a trained engineer found her true calling in Wild Life Photography. Rithika is one of India’s foremost wildlife photographers. She specializes in bird photography and has travelled to most of the National parks in India and Africa. Her work has been appreciated and featured in several national and international publications as well as exhibitions. Swati Hingorni, went on for an Inspire Antartic Expedition and represented India.
She works on tigers and is with Sanctuary Asia. According to her protecting tigers leads to protection of water resources and entire ecosystems. Tiasa Adhya works on the fishing cat, an elusive and nocturnal creature that she spotted in Western Ghats. Tiasa had to spend nights beside ponds to spot it and had to overcome the resistance from the villagers, who were not accustomed to a single woman being outdoors by herself at night.
Committed and fearsome, unmindful of archaic social norms, these women are the embodiment of not just unadulterated, feminine power in the interest of wild life conservation, but they are leaders and managers in conservation.
These brave women are wrestling their ways into the men dominated streams and making imprints on the sands of time that will stay there till eternity. Salute to their valor and tenacity is well deserved.
(The author teaches at Hansraj College, University of Delhi)
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