[ERA Webinar]: Fostering the Jugalbandi of People and Nature – Reflections from Central India

Dr Amrita Neelakantan summarises the decade long story of building the Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI). From a handful of tiger conservationists navigating the impact of National Highway 7 in Kanha-Pench, NCCI has grown into a community of researchers, organisations, and local leaders working across central India.

Today, their network works to foster the ‘jugalbandi’, or interplay, between people’s livelihoods and ecological integrity by linking diverse knowledge systems, mediating the tension between conflicting goals and creating opportunities for joint action.

00:00:01 – Some context
00:01:39 – Introducing Dr Amrita Neelakantan
00:03:43 – Amrita starts her presentation
00:05:13 – The story of NCCI
00:06:16 – Initial days at NCCI
00:10:00 – Baking collaboration into the network
00:11:42 – Should a network become an organisation?
00:14:00 – People & Nature: A duet of conflict and harmony
00:15:30 – Amrita’s three moments that defined “Jugalbandi” at NCCI
00:18:39 – It’s all the same “within” a national park and “outside” a national park
00:19:22 – The structure of NCCI
00:20:40 – The four programs at NCCI
00:21:08 – NCCI small grants: Supporting small projects, experiments and pilots
00:23:51 – Designing spaces that are meaningful to people
00:24:33 – Brokering collaboration: Listening to every single person involved
00:28:05 – Bagh Chaal: Sci-Comms for Tiger Connectivity
00:29:43 – Bagh Chaal: From challenges to tangible output
00:31:27 – [Picture]: Humans, Tigers and connectivity in Central India
00:32:12 – [Video]: Bagh Chaal as a whatsapp forward
00:34:26 – Earning trust
00:35:06 – NCCI’s Agrodiversity Roundtable
00:36:26 – Conservation cannot come at the expense of livelihoods
00:40:06 – The role of feedback
00:41:13 – From indoor presentations to gathering at local mills and bakeries
00:42:37 – Research isn’t about dictating things to communities on ground
00:43:30 – Things that worked and didn’t work for NCCI
00:46:01 – NCCI’s learnings on science communication
00:48:04 – We still have lunch with people we disagree with!

Q-A
00:51:31 – How to contact Amrita and the NCCI
00:52:27 – On local perceptions of NCCI’s interventions
00:54:54 – Work opportunities at NCCI
00:55:55 – On being a partner to the local communities
00:57:46 – Why diversified portfolios of livelihoods are important
00:59:56 – How ethical is it to relocate people for Tiger corridors?
01:02:32 – On data sharing and fostering collaboration between conflicting interests