Have you wondered what it is like to follow hornbills in a dense rainforest? Or felt the pain of a mountain shepherd losing his sheep to a leopard? Or how it feels when a child discovers birdwatching is more exciting than being glued to a screen? The world of nature conservation is full of adventure, but it is also hard, fraught with challenges and setbacks, made worthwhile by the privilege of studying at the feet of living things.
In this book, the scientists and researchers of the Nature Conservation Foundation describe how they grappled with conservation in India. Since 1996, they have wandered mountains, coral reefs, and forests to describe, document, protect and restore species and ecosystems. They have studied the lives of primates, snow leopards, hornbills, elephants, dugongs, fish, trees and other creatures. With local communities, they have experienced the sometimes-harsh reality of living with the wild side of nature. And they have strived to bring children and citizens to celebrate and learn about it.
Each reflective and deeply personal narrative in this book goes behind the science to describe the challenges of conservation. At the Feet of Living Things will appeal to students, researchers, conservation practitioners, wildlife managers, nature enthusiasts and interested citizens.
About the Author
Aparajita Datta is a scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation leading the Eastern Himalaya programme under which research and conservation work with hornbills is carried out. She studies plant–animal interactions, human impacts on wildlife, and works with local communities for conservation. She is the co-chair of the IUCN SSC Hornbill Specialist Group.
Rohan Arthur is a scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation. He is interested in marine systems, and has worked in coral reefs, seagrass meadows and nearshore coastal ecosystems in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. He is particularly interested in how ecological processes respond to climate change, and how social-ecological systems can adapt to a warming world.
T. R. Shankar Raman (aka Sridhar) is a writer and wildlife scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation. He is interested in the ecology and conservation of tropical forests and wildlife, especially in the Western Ghats. He is based at the field research station in Valparai in the Anamalai Hills. He is the author of The Wild Heart of India: Nature and Conservation in the City, the Country, and the Wild and co-author, with Divya Mudappa, of Pillars of Life: Magnificent Trees of the Western Ghats.
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