Coexisting with Tigers in Human-Dominated Central India
Central India is a place where a majority of the world's wild tigers live and traverse villages and agricultural lands interspersed with fragile forest corridors that link tiger reserves. Over the last decade, Amrita has lived and worked in central India, mulling over what makes the heart of India a place where humans and tigers coexist. In this talk, she shared these musings in the hope to spark some rich discussions about—'what is coexistence?' and 'who decides how we coexist?'
About the Scientist
Amrita Neelakantan is a conservation scientist with more than 18 years of experience in conservation. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University (New York, the U.S.A) for thesis work on resettled households around Kanha Tiger Reserve. She is the Executive Director for the Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI) and part of the governing body of the Coexistence Consortium. She cut her teeth in the wildlife conservation industry doing field research in the cloud forests of the Ecuadorian Andes, coastal forest of Kenya and a year-long stint in northern dry-deciduous forests of Madagascar.