Conservation/Conversation
Saturday, 19 September 2026 at 11AM
Note: This is a past event
It rained like it hasn’t in a thousand years. In the Sahyadris. Our hills. We all felt its effect. People lost livelihoods, homes. Some, their lives.
More events of this nature and ferocity are expected around the world. In an effort to address and understand deeper the fragility of our systems, human and environmental, Abbey 301 presents the first in a series of environmental conversations on September 19, 2026.
This day is for us to understand and open conversations about how our actions in the future can affect how we live with our own particular environment and how to address our future in these brittle times.
We would like to share these crucial conversations with you.
Schedule of Events
11:00 - 11:45 | Anish Andheria will open the symposium and talk about the human wildlife conflict and pressure on India’s natural systems.
12:00 - 12:45 | Aparna Watve and Manasi Karandikar will take us through our little spot of the world. How to manage the future, how to reverse the well meaning, but misguided, practices of the past. How to be aware of the dangers of becoming a suburb of Mumbai.
12:45 - 13:30 | Lunch Food & beverages may be purchased at Café 301
13:30 - 14:30 | Sumanth Kuduvalli will screen his film Land of the Blackbuck, on the grasslands of India, a profoundly misunderstood system prevalent in vast areas of India, treated as “bad” lands through the times of British rule. He and Praneet Goteti will speak to how we can serve the ideals and ideas of the natural world whilst we carry on with our lives in other spheres.
About the Speakers
Anish Andheria
President of the Wildlife Conservation Trust. A field biologist and scientist with a countrywide perspective of the ecosystems and forests of India.
Aparna Watve
Botanist with 25 years of experience working in Western Ghats hot-spot region. Red List Authority Coordinator, Western Ghats Plant Specialist Group, IUCN Species Survival Commission
Manasi Karandikar
Ecologist and co-founder/managing partner of oikos, a social enterprise working for ecological land management, and trustee at the Ecological Society, Pune. Working on ecological restoration and landscape planning in the northern Western Ghats.
Sumanth Kuduvalli
Award-winning natural history filmmaker and co-founder of Trailing Wild Productions (Bengaluru). Known for wildlife/conservation documentaries such as The Naga Pride and Land of the Blackbuck.
Praneet Goteti
Praneet has been fascinated by wildlife and wild spaces as far back has he can remember. His experience over the past 27 years covers technology, life coaching, and wildlife conservation.