Samyamee Sreevathsa

Interview Summary (00:00) Early Life, Family, Education Divya Mudappa was born on 2nd November 1971 in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. Her parents are/were from Coorg. Her father had a transferable job where he worked for various plantation and fertiliser companies, like Shaw Wallace. She spent most of her childhood in Madikeri studying at St. Joseph’s Convent but stayed in Hassan for six years in between where she studied at Stephen’s English School. Although she was surrounded by trees and coffee estates while...

Interview Summary (00:00) Application Processes, reasons for Studying Brown Palm Civet, choosing Bharathiar University for PhD Divya Mudappa had an interview at Stella Maris College, Chennai while enrolling for a Bachelor's in Zoology. For her Master’s at Pondicherry University, she wrote an entrance exam after which she was shortlisted and was called for an interview. After her Master’s, she wanted to study small carnivores for a project on the effects of fragmentation on animals. During her initial surveys...

Interview Summary (00:00) Knowledge and learnings for germination Mudappa explains that collecting seeds got easier with time. Their phenological studies provided inputs on when to collect them. She says that the downside of collecting seeds from the same individual is the low genetic diversity of that species. She recalls that much knowledge of growing seeds in the nursery came from trial and error and common sense. Mudappa explains that ideal conditions are given to the seeds to grow in the nursery....

Interview Summary (00:00) Getting the Forest Department to think differently about wattle removal Mudappa talks about how the Forest Department was keen on removing invasives due to an order issued by the Tamil Nadu court to eradicate invasives. The department had planned to completely remove them. She explains that the en masse eradication of wattle using a JCB (bulldozer) was not a good strategy as it would disrupt the regeneration of shola grasslands in Kodaikanal and wipe out the existing native...

Interview Summary (00:00) Working alongside Sridhar for over 20 years on restoration work in Valparai Mudappa says that Sridhar (T. R. S. Raman) and her work together on many aspects, especially identifying research issues, and discussing them in detail with each other. She describes the roles that they individually take on, with Mudappa focusing on the implementation of the project, dealing with students and assistants, management and logistics; and Sridhar concentrating on the curation and analysis of the...