Interview Summary
Prachi Mehta speaks about her work through her environmental consultancy Enviro Search and her NGO Wildlife Research and Conservation Society (WRCS) between 2007 and 2011. She speaks about the projects on the human-elephant conflict in North East, Uttara Kannada, and Maharashtra and collaborations on those projects with other organisations, government bodies, and local communities such as farmers and villagers. She speaks about the elephant conservation project in Kodagu and faced challenges such as encroachment, poaching, and lack of effective solutions from the government and farmers.
Mehta speaks about beginning her research on the Forest Owlet in 2005, detailing her first project on the species and new research techniques and methodologies she needed to learn such as color banding the birds and radio telemetry. She learned such techniques from owl researchers in the USA and in India from colleagues who worked with birds. She speaks about her work on the Forest Owlet in Melghat forest reserve, the research outcomes of that project, and the funding she procured from Raptor Research and Conservation Fun (RRCF) and The Peregrine Fund.
(00:00:03) Projects under Enviro Search and WRCS, human-elephant conflict in Kodagu in Karnataka
(00:05:12) Elephant conservation work at WRCS in Maharashtra and Uttara Kannada
[Archivist’s note: Mehta refers to working in North Kanara. North Kanara (also alternatively written as Canara) is, today, officially called Uttara Kannada.]
(00:11:31) NGOs working on elephant conservation efforts in India, detail Mehta and WRCS’s work on elephant research and conservation in Kodagu
(00:19:41) Local attitudes and government approaches to protecting elephants
(00:25:29) Mehta’s research focus on Forest Owlets, the rediscovery of Forest Owlets, research methodology to study the Forest Owlet
(00:29:51) Study of Forest Owlet in Melghat reserve project proposal, a trip to the USA, learning and developing owl research techniques and methodology
(00:37:28) Color banding and radio telemetry Forest Owlets; population dynamics, morphology characteristic studies, and conservation of Forest Owlet
(00:46:06) Challenges faced while conducting radio telemetry on Forest Owlets
[00:49:10-00:50:22 - Restricted Access. Contact archives@ncbs.res.in for details]
(00:52:49) Reflecting on the relationship with RRCF
Dates
- Creation: 2023-06-10
Creator
- From the File: Sridhar, Hari (Interviewer, Person)
- From the File: Udaipurwala, Umm-E-Salama (Processing Archivist, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Level of Access: Open/Online
Biography
Prachi Mehta is an ecologist who has been studying the ecology of the Forest Owlet since 2005. She is currently the Director (Research) of the Wildlife Research and Conservation Society (WRCS), Pune. She grew up in Mumbai and did her undergraduate degree from Ruia College, Mumbai in Life Sciences. She pursued her master’s in Life Sciences from Mumbai University following which she did her PhD in Wildlife Biology from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, (WII) studying the impact of forestry practices on bird communities of Satpura Hills in Bori Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, and Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.
She and Jayant Kulkarni started an environmental consultancy called Enviro Search in 2001 and later created the non-governmental organization WRCS in 2005. Her work involves studying the ecology of the Forest Owlet at Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, and Melghat, Nandurbar, and Tansa in Maharashtra. She has been involved in community-based mitigation of human-elephant interactions in Uttara Kannada and Maharashtra.
In addition to her research on the Forest Owlet, Mehta has been involved in the protection of the bird. She has collaborated with local communities through awareness programs and with the Forest Department by conducting capacity-building programs for their frontline staff.
Extent
56 Minutes
Language of Materials
English
Repository Details
Part of the Archives at NCBS Repository
National Centre for Biological Sciences - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Bangalore Karnataka 560065 India
+9180 6717 6010
+9180 6717 6011
archives@ncbs.res.in