EVS Department Colloquium Series
Colloquium Series Spring 2026
Colloquium Series Monsoon 2025
The Environmental Studies Department organised a colloquium series in the Monsoon 2025 semester. The series of lectures explores the intersections of environment, politics, and conservation. The lectures were conducted online as interactive webinars, which had great student engagement.
The first talk in the series was on Politics and Resistance of Coal in Australia and India; Climate Justice Activism in the Global North and South by Dr. Ruchira Talukdar, Co-Founder & Director, Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity held on SEP 15, 2025.
The second talk was on The coup in nature’s governance: The centralisation of Indian wildlife conservation in the 1970s by Dr. Biswajit Sarmah, IIT Palakkad held on SEP 24, 2025.
The third talk was on The Role of Science in Conserving Wildlife in India by Dr. Yadvendradev V. Jhala, Wildlife Scientist, INSA Senior Scientist at National Centre for Biological Sciences held on OCT 30, 2025.
The Colloquium series concluded with a very engaging talk and field experience:
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Citizen Science for Biodiversity by Dr. Suhel Quader, NCF held on NOV 25, 2025.
Dr. Suhel Quader, Head of Education and Public Engagement at Nature Conservation Foundation, spoke on November 25, 2025 at Ashoka Campus. He discussed tracking biodiversity amid rapid global change through citizen science-partnerships between scientists and enthusiastic public members. Drawing from work on trees and birds, Dr. Quader demonstrated this approach’s effectiveness, emphasizing both urgency and opportunity in engaging people to understand our changing planet.
Dr. Quader also led a 7 AM birding session around Ashoka Campus that drew enthusiastic participation from students, faculty, and staff. The group spotted over 27 bird species, including the rare Indian Thick-knee.
The Environmental Studies Department organized a Seminar on “A Community Conservation Movement: Saving the Endangered Greater Adjutant Stork (Hargila) by Changing Perceptions, Linking to Cultures and Empowering Women in Assam, India” by Purnima Devi Barman, Hargila Army & Aaranyak to be held on Wednesday, 3 March 2021, 1.30-2.45 pm (IST).
Title: “Tale of an Endangered Bird, the Hargila” by Purnima Devi Barman, Hargila Army & Aaranyak
Chair: Professor Mitul Baruah, Environmental Studies
The Environmental Studies Department organized an excellent photo exhibition, “Pani, Pahar: Waters of the Himalayas” from February 13-15, 2019. This exhibition combined academic research led by Prof. Bhaskar Vira and Dr. Eszter Kovacs at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, with contemporary work by photojournalist Toby Smith. For more on the exhibition, visit their website: https://www.panipahar.com
