Women in the Wild

How many Indian wildlife biologists can you name? How many Indian women wildlife biologists can you name?

There are several, and their lives and work have been extraordinary. This is the story of these women and their journeys across the length and breadth of India’s wild spaces – forests, rivers, oceans, mountains – and, more importantly, through the glass ceiling.

Among them are ‘Turtle Girl’ J. Vijaya, one of India’s first female herpetologists whose research into the killing of olive ridley turtles led to Indira Gandhi banning the turtle trade; Jamal Ara, India’s mysterious ‘Birdwoman’; Divya Mudappa, a biologist rewilding fragments of the shola grasslands of the Western Ghats; and Uma Ramakrishnan, whose work is helping us understand the science behind tiger populations.

Anita Mani lives, works and birds in Delhi, from where she runs Indian Pitta, her book imprint with Juggernaut Books. In addition to editing books about birds and natural history, Anita writes on technology and communications, a throwback to the time she ran the operations of a communications software company. Her work journey is similar to that of a migrating bird – she has oscillated from writing (first for the Hindu Business Line, and later Business Standard) to a corporate career and back to writing. For several years, she ran a news and current affairs publication for children called Child Friendly News. For now, she is content to watch, read and write about birds.