"Grasslands then and now- how history shaped Indian wet grasslands and its biodiversity"
537 Heller Hall
Abstract: Grasslands are one of the contested ecosystems due not just to our scant understanding of their ecological and socio-economic roles, but also to the ambiguity in understanding what exactly constitutes them. This problem escalates in the absence of proper governance at various levels. In this paper, I delve into the historical accounts of Indian grasslands to trace how it has shaped the contemporary grassland conservation and restoration policies. The paper derives from the concept of Biome Awareness Disparity (BAD) and links it to grassland degradation due to misleading nomenclature and flawed interventions rooted in misplaced governance. I find that Indian grasslands are largely affected by India’s commitment to global goals (with quantified targets of green cover) and the involvement of multiple government bodies in grassland management. This conundrum is fueled by the strong forest bias within the engaging stakeholders (government bodies and NGOs) with a lack of consensus on governance decisions. Following this, I then take an ecological approach to understand how the centuries of grassland loss and neglect has impacted biodiversity. By revisiting alluvial wet grasslands of Northeast India that were first surveyed in the early 1900s, I present some preliminary findings on the impact of grassland loss on endemic bird diversity and composition. Taken together, my thesis presents some reflections on how history shapes the ongoing social and ecological crisis of grasslands.
About the Speaker
Sutirtha Lahiri is a Ph.D. student at the conservation science program. He holds a bachelor's in Science from University of Delhi and an MSc in wildlife science from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India. He subsequently held a research position at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Hailing from Assam, Sutirtha's research interests are tied to the Northeast of India. He has conducted ornithological research on Hornbill nesting ecology, vocal behavior of Drongos, as well as bioacoustic monitoring of bird communities in grasslands. For his Ph.D., he is keen to understand how and whether fragmented populations of grassland birds are connected. He is also keen to study how floodplain grasslands shape, and are in turn shaped, by humans. He intends to combine his training and experience in ecology with interests in ethnographic research to have a holistic understanding of a complex socio-ecological system, and contribute to both biodiversity conservation and human well-being.
Apart from this, he is also a freelance writer, and his articles have appeared in several platforms including Sanctuary Asia, RoundGlass Sustain, Outlook traveller, and National Geographic Magazine. He is also recipient of several fellowships and research grants including the WII Fellowship, Rufford Small Grants, Oriental Bird Club Conservation Grant, IDEA WILD Equipment grant.