Ghazala Shahabuddin speaks about Science, Society and the Future of India’s Wildlife

The South Asian Studies Council welcomes Ghazala Shahabuddin, New India Foundation Fellow and Associate Professor at the School of Human Ecology at Ambedkar University, to its Colloquium Series.  Professor Shahabuddin will deliver a talk titled “Conservation at the Crossroads: Science, Society and the Future of India’s Wildlife”.

4:30pm, April 4 • Room 203, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

Ghazala Shahabuddin has been Associate Professor at the School of Human Ecology at Ambedkar University, Delhi since 2009. She completed her Bachelor’s in Zoology from Delhi University and Master’s in Ecology from Pondicherry University (India).  She obtained her PhD in conservation biology from Duke University (USA) in 1998 under the supervision of Dr. John Terborgh. She has worked and published extensively on issues at the interface of human society and ecology including the impacts of habitat fragmentation, the relationship between human landuse and forest biodiversity, community forestry  and conservation-induced displacement. She was a Fellow at the Council for Social Development in New Delhi and a Research Associate with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s India Program from 2003 to 2007. She has also been a Visiting Professor in conservation biology and policy at the American University, Washington DC and worked as a Consultant with the World Bank working on global tiger conservation issues. She co-edited ‘Making Conservation Work: Securing Biodiversity in this New Century’ with Mahesh Rangarajan, published by Permanent Black in 2007.

Abstract for “Conservation at the Crossroads: Science, Society and the Future of India’s Wildlife”

Like many other South Asian countries, India faces an ecological crisis of crippling proportions. The overexploitation of the country’s forests and wetlands is eating away at vital ecological processes. Rapid and unplanned economic development threatens to fragment and devour the wildlife habitat that remains. Plant and animal species are joining the ranks of the critically endangered, faster than ever before. In the process, rural livelihoods and ecosystem services have also reached a stage of near-collapse. Using the Sariska Tiger Reserve (Rajasthan) as a major anchor, Dr. Shahabuddin analyses the historical, socio-political, and biological contexts of nature conservation in the country in an effort to identify the causes of India’s ecological degradation.  India’s dominant conservation paradigm of control and exclusion - where animals and ecosystems are sought to be protected by guns, guards, fences - is identified as one of the underlying causes of the extinction crisis.  She surveys alternative approaches to conservation which attempt to reconcile social equity with biodiversity goals. She provides data to demonstrate that a broad-based participatory approach to conservation is necessary and argues that environmental justice, improved governance and sound ecological science have to become innate parts of  the conservation agenda in developing countries, if we are to see India’s extraordinary wildlife survive into the next century.  The talk is based on her book of the same name, published in 2010 by Permanent Black, Delhi.