NatHistory India Forum founder interview

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

This is a transcript of an interview of Mr Vivek Tiwari, Founder

of NatHistory-India Forum and eminent birdwatcher. This is based on his talk

last Thursday at the India International Center in New Delhi.

Regards,

 

 

Dear ,

Thanks a ton for your kind words. Also thanks for attending and for

working in an organization like WWF.

BTW, I wrote the following in response to questions for the IIC

journalist Kavita.

Perhaps some of it may be of interest to you.

Glad to have met you and hopefully we will have other opportunities.

Best regards,

Vivek

Photos of birds: There are too many to send. Here is the link to my flickr

account: where you can find some of the pictures.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30419272@N00/

 

 

 

An older version of the talk is here:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13867089@N03/sets/72157602522826054/

 

 

 

 

 

1) Why is your talk titled East meets West and can I have a copy of

your presentation?

 

 

 

Copy of presentation – I don’t really have it in writing. Your recording is

the only recording I have in any media. And the actual presentation is

basically 200 photographs.

 

 

 

Why the talk title – “East meets West”:

 

The bird-life of India has a distinctive flavour – a blend of the East and

the West.

 

East, as in, birds that are typify the Oriental region and West, as in,

birds that typify the Palearctic (European and North Asian) and African

regions. We can view it as a meeting point for several ecoregions – the dry

habitats and vegetation of the Thar and Kutch are somewhat similar to those

of the Saharan and Arabian regions, the wet forests of the Himalayan

foothills and the North East and contiguous with and similar to those of

South East Asia and the upper reaches of Himalayas have temperate and alpine

habitats and vegetation similar to those Europe and Northen Asia. This

diversity of climate, vegetation and habitats contributes to the large

biodiversity of birds and flora and fauna in general.

 

Other East/West themes that I bring out in the talk – in many species within

India there is variation in plumage as one moves from one part of the

country to another; and finally that as either as an end-point or as country

of passge for migratory birds there is an aspect of east meeting west. Now

the migration is not strictly East-West but many birds that Western birders

would think of or as characteristic of their home countries are also our

birds since they spend time here in the East. I find that the enjoyment of

birding is greatly enhanced if we try and look deeper and try to understand

where a bird is from, what other birds is it related to, what contrasts and

similarities can be seen with other birds etc. These biogeographic aspects

are also key to understanding biodiversity and ultimately aid in the

conservation of this divesrity.

 

 

 

2) Apparently you have seen the largest number of birds in India,

Right?

 

 

 

No, that is not the case. There are many people I know who have seen more

species in India than I have. I infact do not know who has seen the most

number of species in India. Worldwide I have seen over 2500 species (there

are many people who have seen over 8000). Of the countries that I have

birded in, it is India where I have seen the most number of species

(currently about 750).

 

 

 

4) When did you first start biriding?

 

 

 

I first started birding in India in 1990. I left for the US in 1991 and but

have been visiting India almost every year since then and try and bird at

least a few days during those visits.

 

 

 

 

 

5) Birds I have been specially struck by and where have I travelled.

 

( I will limit this to Indian birds)

 

 

 

There are many-many species that hold a particular fascination for me a)

majestic birds like the greater hornbills – e.g. the Rufous-necked Hornbill

of wet tall forests of the North East. A spectacular bird to look at and now

also threatened from hunting and loss of nesting trees, b) birds with a very

limited distribution and thus hard to see – like the Grey Hypocolius that

winters in Kutch in Gujarat (breeds in Iraq and Iran) or the Black-naped Tit

– endemic to India and with a limited distribution in dry thorn forests in

parts of Gujarat, Rajashtan and some local patches in Karnataka and Tamil

Nadu.

 

A perhaps surprising favourite is Brown Rock-Chat. Surprising - because it

is the very definition of a drab-looking bird. Small, uniform brown with

nothing special to distinguish it visually. However it is endemic to India –

barely extending into Pakistan and Nepal and found nowhere else on earth.

Found in North-Central India – Punjab to N Gujarat, east to Central Madhya

Pradesh and Bihar. Its also somewhat unique among its closer relatives in

that the male and female have the same plumage. Its natural habitat is rocky

areas but it has competely adapted itself to human habitation and is pretty

common in residential areas where it will be seen perched on rooftops. Its

easy to overlook unless one is specifically paying attention to birds.

 

Another favourite is Streaked Spiderhunter. Spiderhunters and Sunbirds are a

family of small, energetic and colorful birds found in the Old World. They

feed mainly on plant nectar (making them important pollinators) but

supplement their diet with insects, especially when breeding. They are the

ecological counterparts of the hummingbirds in the New World. Spiderhunters

tend to be more robust with longer bills than Sunbirds. Streaked

Spiderhunter is a species that is widely distributed over southeast Asia,

but it reaches only the northeastern part of India.

 

However ever since I first leafed through Salim Ali’s Pictoral Guide to the

Birds of Inda, there was something about this bird and its name that stuck

with me and I developed a great desire to see this bird. I also use the bird

as my icon in online forums. When I finally made it to the North-East, at

Namdapha National Park, this gratifyingly turned out to be the most common

and visible birds there!

 

 

 

I have birded in Gujarat (Kutch), many places in the Western Ghats, in

Uttaranchal, sanctuaries in Assam and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh and many

places in the northern plains.Uttaranchal is my favourite part of the world.

Namdapha in Arunchal Pradesh has always held a special fascination for me.

It’s a jewel of biodiversity. Top-Slip in the Annamalai’s was specially

formative for me as I visited there from college for a WWF camp and was a

key learning experience for me.

 

 

 

6) How did you get into birding? Any interesting experiences?

 

 

 

I always had a fascination for nature. Some of the elements in childhood

which nurtured this – my biology teacher in grades 6-8th, Mrs E. George at

the Air Force Bal Bharti school – her lectures held the whole class

mesmerized; my mother used to bring home National Geographic maganizes from

her college library and I used to pore over every page. An issue on

Rainforests with an Orange-eyed Tree Frog on its cover is one that I

especially remember since after that magazine I resolved that I absolutely

had to get to the Amazon, a dream I was able to realize later in life.

 

My interest in birding happened almost by accident. In my 3rd year in

College I heard about a trip to Chilla near Haridwar organzed by the IIT

Delhi Nature Club. It sounded like a fun outing so I joined them. Never

having spent any significant time in forests, I expected to see all kinds of

wild animals at every corner. But a whole day of trekking inside the forest

on foot yielded only an Elephant and some lizards. This was not turning out

to be too much fun. We camped by the river at night and in the morning I saw

a group of people heading off into the forest with a pair of binoculars. I

asked them what they were planning to do and they said – look for birds.

That sounded strange but since I did not seem to have anything better to do,

I decided to follow them. This turned out to be life-changing. One of the

first birds I ever saw through a pair of binoculars was a Golden Oriole. A

beautiful yellow and black bird that I had never seen before, or did not

even know that it existed. As I watched it opened its beak to give its

melodious call and I was hooked from that point on.

 

When I went to Princeton for my graduate studies, I again, just by luck,

heard about an adult education class on birdwatching being offered at the

Princeton High School. That experience opened my eyes to how much there was

to learn about birds and birding and how it could be a rewarding lifelong

passion.

 

 

 

Ultimately though my interest in birding is sustained since I am fascinated

by the natural world in general, enjoy the outdoors, and love to travel. In

birding, I have found an activity that combines the best of all of these.

While traveling, no matter where in the world I am, if I have my binoculars

or camera, I can keep myself busy since there usually are birds around.

Having an interest in nature, and with birds as a window into it, helps me

better understand and appreciate the complexity, diversity, and dynamics of

life.

 

 

 

7) What do you hope to do in the future wrt birding?

 

 

In the future, I do hope to see as many birds in India as possible.

Increasingly I am also interested in improving my skills in bird photography

and ideally would like to be able to photograph every new species I see. I

also hope to continue to visit and bird in Central and South America, the

only regions of Earth that exceed India in bird diversity. In the end

though, my main goal is do more to protect birds and bird habitats.

Increasing awareness is one part of it – you only protect what you love, you

only love what you know – increasing that knowledge, especially among the

younger generation, about Indian birds and their role in India’s biological

heritage is absolutely necessary and hopefully I can continue to contribute

in some way to that.

 

 

Vivek Tiwari received a B. Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT

Delhi in 1991 and a PhD from Princeton University in 1996. He is currently of Engineering at Intel Corporation based in the San Francisco Bay

Area, California. His prior role was in Research and Development where he

worked on techniques for reducing the power consumption of computer systems.