Alumni Update: Neha Sinha
Neha Sinha, a 2010 Scholar, is currently Head, Policy and Communications at World Wildlife Fund, India (WWF). Her bestselling first book, 'Wild and Wilful' (HarperCollins), was published in 2021. In 2023, she contributed a chapter in the acclaimed book 'Women in The Wild', published by Juggernaut. She was awarded as a finalist in the global Nature Chronicles Prize (2022-23) for her nature writing. In 2017, Sanctuary Asia awarded her for her service to wildlife.
We spoke to Neha to know more about her role at WWF, her published work,
and her views on conservation. Read on for more.
What was the journey of writing ‘Wild and Wilful’ like? What were some of the challenges you overcame and the biggest lessons you learnt while bringing it to life?
Wild and Wilful was written during the pandemic, but I have been thinking about it my whole life. I grew up with the privilege of a garden, and my life was brightened by wild animals and birds. I never considered non-humans to be the ‘others’- they were, simply, different from us. The book unpacks the word ‘wilful’ and questions why we don’t like an animal if it is wild, feral or wilful. I draw a portrait of fifteen Indian animals which live amongst us and inhabit our lands and waters– from Tigers to Tiger butterflies, from critically endangered Great Indian Bustards to the delightfully plentiful Rosy starlings. I try to understand how we shape animal lives, and how they shape ours, and ultimately, I find that animals exert agency that needs to be understood and appreciated. There are mother elephants giving up their lives to save their loved ones, tigers making new maps of India with their wanderings, and there are Gangetic dolphins trying to live in rivers with increased ship and boat traffic.
One of the interesting things about drawing a portrait of an animal is that you don’t know if you are truly representing your subject like it wants to be portrayed. Stories about animals (and how we treat them), are therefore stories about what it takes to be more human.
Can you tell us about ‘Women in the Wild’, and the chapter you contributed to it?
Women in the Wild is edited by my friend Anita Mani and originated from something of a gap. We often talk about women achievement, but not in wildlife conservation, and that needed to be remedied. Field conservation in itself is a difficult field – it includes remote locations, tough hours, and an office that can mean sharing space with a tiger or a snake. My chapter focuses on Ghazala Shahabuddin, who studies oak forests in Uttarakhand. These forests are slowly getting ingressed by Chir pine trees, aided by disturbance and global warming. The thick, threatened oak forest (as compared to the pine forests which harbour less wildlife) is a metaphor for how we often don’t appreciate diversity and complexity. I’ve also told Ghazala’s story in a manner which spotlights how challenges faced by women aren’t always the big things like family opposition, but also the seemingly ordinary ones like running a conservation project for a decade in a manner that’s fiercely independent and with a great deal of integrity. The challenges of carrying on can sometimes be monumental – we need to understand them as much as we celebrate victories.
What are the goals, challenges and impact of the work in wildlife conservation?
The goals of wildlife conservation usually pertain to safeguarding species and habitats from threats, and integrating wildlife, climate and biodiversity values in planning processes. For example, a road being made or expanding may impinge on an elephant corridor – this needs to be considered before the construction, to find either bypasses or ways to enable endangered animals to cross. Does the tiger vote? No he doesn’t, but we can find ways of representing the tiger before a mine, a highway or a dam is made.
What, according to you, are the key issues plaguing wildlife conservation today?
We seem to think we have an endless stream of resources to take as we like- when in fact, resources like fresh water, healthy soil and minerals are few and strained. It’s very important to grow sustainably, which means keeping the integrity of an ecosystem like a river intact, and thinking about the Ganges river dolphin that lives in the river too. The river isn’t just water- it’s also habitat; just like forests aren’t just areas waiting to be malls – they are lungs, they are homes, they are history.
How can we do better, through our daily life and the choices we make, to support wildlife conservation?
We can associate ourselves with organisations like WWF India to see how one volunteer time, talent or finances. We can also ensure we plant native plants around us – that helps create shelter and corridors for wild animals. And each of us should learn about nature-based solutions as we face climate change. Generally speaking, strengthening natural ecosystems are a buffer against climate risk – mangroves on coasts help buffer storms, maintaining healthy catchments and water channels helps reduce flood risk. Each person from each field can keep this in mind and raise these issues in planning processes.
As a nature writer, could you share with us, the names of a few of your favourite books/ writers on the subject, and why you enjoy reading them?
I grew up on white man literature like Jim Corbett and Rudyard Kipling, and am so happy to see new, decolonised nature writing now. Today there is Ruskin Bond, Yuvan Aves, Arati Kumar Rao, Sumana Roy, Amitav Ghosh – they each present a very localised and authentic perspective of nature and the people who live cheek by jowl with it. Internationally, I love Robert Macfarlane.
