Ethnographies of conservation the world over tend to treat scientists as homogenous in worldview and approach, while painting a nuanced picture of people who encounter and are victims of conservation. Recently, there have been calls to pay more careful attention to the 'life-worlds' of scientists, both for a more nuanced academic characterization, as well as to offer victims of conservation a better understanding of the conservation enterprise. Beginning in 2020, with these motivations in mind, I have been conducting an oral history of Indian conservation biologists to document: the early-life experiences that led to their interests in wildlife and nature; their research choices and priorities, especially in relation to balancing academic novelty and conservation utility; and their reflections, based on lived experiences, on the place of science in conservation.
Indian conservation biology occupies a unique position in the Global South. Like the rest of the world, Indian Conservation Biology is based upon ideas and frameworks from the West, mainly from the US (what one might call Michael Soulé’s conservation biology). At the same time, thanks to India’s historical resistance to foreign biologists, its conservation biology community consists entirely of Indians. This is in sharp contrast to the rest of the Global South, where conservation biology historically, and to a large extent until today, is dominated by scientists from the Global North. I believe that understanding how India's biologists navigate the pulls and pressures of practicing a global conservation biology while yet producing locally salient knowledge, holds important lessons for our broader understanding of the intersection between science and conservation .