Women In The Wild: Stories of India’s Most Brilliant Women Wildlife Biologists is a book that does something that no other book within the Indian publishing has achieved. It archives the stories of female wildlife specialists across the continent, and maps their journeys out through the length and breadth of India’s ecosystem—forests, rivers, oceans, mountains and more. It not only gives us an insight into their explorations, but also serves as an inspiration to young girls looking to break the gendered glass ceiling. We’re in conversation with Anita Mani, the curator of the book, who lets us in on her process of how she went about bringing these stories to the forefront.
What was the driving force behind the creation of this book?
To celebrate women in wildlife. Wildlife Biology is a unique field of scientific enquiry that demands a deep understanding of species/landscapes, long working hours far from creature comforts, the ability of problem-solving on your feet, the instinct to put together a team, raise funds for projects and work with government agencies. These women have accomplished so much and it triggered an interest in understanding the hows and whys of their journeys at a deeper level. The other thing was their unique stories. Take for instance, Jamal Ara, India’s long forgotten birdwoman, who taught herself a whole new language and boot-strapped a career in an era when there were few women in wildlife or the Turtle Girl Vijaya who carved out a fantastic legacy as one of India’s first herpetologists, (in the process of re-discovering a long lost turtle species) in the conservative Chennai of the 1980s.
What about the genre of nature writing piques your interest?
Its the ability to transport and transcend the reader from familiar planes and comfort zones. While working on the book, I tramped through the moist forests of north-eastern India, rode the waves on our coasts and tracked tigers and leopards in the central Indian landscapes!
What do you hope readers gauge from this novel?
I hope the book conveys a sense of the journeys each of these women took to get where they are today. For me, this was far more important than their accomplishments. It is also the reason that this book is a compilation of long form pieces.
What did the curatorial process for this book look like? How did you ensure diversity among the voices you were spotlighting?
The book has been a year in the making. The idea was to feature women whose fieldwork had a substantial impact on species/landscape conservation or whose work had contributed to the resolution of environmental challenges confronting wildlife in India. The aim of the essays was not only to explore the impact of their work but what it took to get them there. Having said that, by no measure is this an exhaustive list of women who tick all the boxes. In terms of diversity, the book features women who have worked in diverse landscapes–from Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh to Maharashtra and further south, from the Western Ghats to the high Himalayas. Some work on specific species of birds and mammals and reptiles, while others focus on the broader landscape arc.
You say your journey has been similar to that of a migrating bird—how so?
I started my career with a newspaper—The Hindu Business Line in Chennai, and later briefly the Business Standard, before moving to the corporate sector. I worked with an investment bank and later in a communication software company, before coming back to writing and editing. This was my circle of migration.
Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Date 03.10.2023