Divya Mudappa - Session 05, 2022-06-25

(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 data, initial writing and the output of the project. Both take equal responsibility while developing proposals and raising funds. She feels that it would not have been possible to make the project happen if they worked independently. [Archivist’s note: Interviewee refers to T. R. S. Raman by their nickname, Sridhar, throughout the interview]

(7:22) Importance of NCF (Nature Conservation Foundation) for Mudappa’s work Mudappa talks about being in a position of privilege at NCF as she had been with it since its inception. She says that people at WII (Wildlife Institute of India) and CES (Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc), were able to enjoy little of what they did and had to do what the institution wanted them to do. She explains that the founders of NCF focussed on spending more energy on what they wanted to do which would help research and conservation action better. NCF allowed them to engage with a place for a long time, have discussions with peers during times of trouble and get support and advice during failures. She hopes that others who work at NCF also enjoy this freedom. She talks about taking up larger roles and responsibilities and wishes they had a financial endowment to take some risks. She says that people at NCF have freedom in terms of time management but realises that there would be some hierarchy while working in a team with respect to achieving targets. She says that the risk taken in case they had financial endowment would be to try and restore a degraded piece of land of their own where their approach would be different. (18:27) Learnings from other NCF Programmes, benefits and drawbacks of living and working in Valparai She talks about how their restoration work has inspired others to take it up, like in Pakke, and adapt it to their contexts. Other projects like the long-term monitoring in Pakke and phenological studies in Rishi Valley carried out by Suhel Quader, are adapted to other sites. She explains that if a project is successful in one, they consider executing it in other landscapes. Mudappa describes that by living in the same landscape where they work, they experience the same things that the locals do. This enables them to understand and support each other, which also helps in their restoration work. The companies listen to them seriously after learning that they have lived in the landscape for over 25 years. She explains that working for NCF also helps them access places that are difficult to enter because the locals know that they do not take undue advantage. She says that being a ‘localite’ has a disadvantage of not being heard by the Forest Department. She recalls incidents where the Department would conduct restoration workshops and call people from other cities when her team would not even be invited. She wonders if they would be taken more seriously if they lived in cities and worked for more well-known government organisations like IISc. (26:42) Vision and hope for the restoration work She talks about the potential role that Valparai can play in wildlife conservation and present itself as a model for managing places around protected areas consisting of industries and plantations. She discusses the many workshops and trainings that the team hosts where the attendees implement their learnings in their respective sites. She talks about how their presence in Valparai is important in restoring and managing the landscape. She believes that conservation will work if it is being led by a community or a village with sincerity and is unsure whether it will succeed if it is taken up solely by a Village Panchayat or a Forest Department. Mudappa discusses the Ecological Restoration Alliance project that they started, which is an informal alliance to bring together people practising restoration in different parts of the country. She explains that the agenda of this platform is to help carry out restoration in a better way. She explains how there is huge potential for restoration in terms of the number of people who want to work on it but most think of it as planting trees. She hopes that the platform will prevent random planting and provide support, experience and knowledge to anyone who wants to do it right.

(33:58) Importance of restoration in conservation action Mudappa explains that simply removing disturbances like invasives and preventing further degradation of natural ecosystems is also restoration. She believes that areas surrounding reserve forests undergoing massive transformation due to areca nut, rubber and oil palm plantations can greatly benefit from restoration, mainly on private lands. She talks about the limitations of working on government lands which would be allocated for projects other than restoration, like habitat management for tigers. She says that protected areas carry a lot of potential to be restored but it needs to be done correctly. (38:38) Broadening scope of project to tourism, infrastructure and local issues Mudappa describes their everyday battles against construction of roads inside and outside the Tiger Reserve. She recollects their efforts at getting companies certified to be more environmentally friendly, which was an attempt at broadening their scope. She says that they were unable to handle tourism as it became a larger issue. As local citizens, they worry about litter, noise and light pollution and write about the carrying capacity of Valparai and water management. Mudappa talks about Sridhar’s work on infrastructure and linear instructions within wildlife areas when he was a member of NBWL (National Board for Wildlife); and Srini’s concerns regarding garbage and his drive to do something about it. She talks about not doing much proactively other than connecting the panchayat with the solid waste management in Coonoor and other places and writing letters. [Archivist’s note: Interviewee refers to K. Srinivasan by their nickname, Srini, throughout the interview] (43:08) Other research interests She discusses a few research ideas on Hornbills that they want to explore, like understanding what determines abandoning and finding their nests. Mudappa is unsure of working actively on small carnivores but continues to be interested in plant-animal interactions. She talks about Rohit Naniwadekar and Anand M Osuri’s interests in the same who bring along students to Valparai to work on the same. She talks about how Valparai has become a territory of NCF which is not something they want and would prefer it if multiple institutions work there which would help the landscape have many voices and would be better for conservation and research.

(46:39) Steps to consider before doing restoration Mudappa says that a person interested in restoration needs to identify what they want to restore and whether restoration is actually necessary. They also need to learn about the land tenure, people and wildlife who are dependent on the place, how restoration would benefit them and what issues it would prevent. She adds that they need to learn about the soil, plant communities and the geology of the place. Further, she suggests engaging with stakeholders. She talks about their restoration sites in Valparai which consist of degraded areas within fragments in plantations because that is what they could work on, logistically. She explains that one needs to know how degraded the site is and whether there is potential for natural regeneration after removal of disturbances. She says that one must simply not plant, as just planting is not restoration.

(51:41) Nature of criticism faced for working with companies Mudappa says that people were afraid that the company would claim to have carried out restoration when it was truly the NCF team that headed the project. She believes that even if they made such a claim, it would not be problematic as long as they restricted it to their own sites and did not claim that they restore in other fragments. She adds that people are also concerned that the company would make use of the claim to convert more areas for plantations and industries; however, she says that it has not happened. She says that these things are based on goodwill and that there needs to be respect and trust from both sides to make it happen. She mentions that they lost a few partnerships because the company wanted the team to support claims that it benefits wildlife without any proof. She says that their project is designed in such a way where even if such situations arise, the team is not indebted/obligated to them as they do not directly take funds from the companies. (55:39) Moments that have given a lot of satisfaction and disappointment, Should conservation focus more on the larger forces that destroy forests Mudappa says that watching their restored sites with trees flowering and fruiting and seeing a Great Hornbill or a Langur on them gives them a lot of happiness and satisfaction. She says that they have to face battles everyday but the bigger disappointment for them is that although globally people have recognized and appreciated their work, the local companies are not thinking of doing something similar. She talks about how writing and supporting a campaign as individuals and organisations has been their strongest tool to stop larger forces that destroy forests. She thinks that others work better on these issues than them and that unless people unite, these larger forces cannot be stopped or fought against. She believes that one has to keep trying and feels hopeful with the many voices and the activism happening now.

(1:03:57) Anything Mudappa would like to re-do, a special wildlife moment She says that because she is more confident in a few things and is able to accept shortcomings, she may have done some things differently. However, she believes that they did the best they could under those circumstances. She is grateful to NCF for allowing them to work at their own pace and not rush which is why they made fewer mistakes. She believes that there is always a scope to improve and feels that her teammates will work differently and work better. Mudappa shares that she looks forward to the congregation of the Great Hornbills every year nearby. She says that she looks forward to seeing the brown mongoose and the wildlife everyday outside her house which is present because of the history of the place and the people being tolerant.