Episode 18: Nachiket Kelkar & Kadambari Deshpande (India)

Charles and Jon speak to conservation power couple Nachiket Kelkar and Kadambari Deshpande from their home in Bangalore. for the finale to Season 3 of the podcast.Kadambari and Nachiket both work to better understand how wildlife and people can co-exist in India, with Kadambari focussing on bats and Nachiket looking at riverine ecosystems and wildlife including the Ganges River Dolphin.In a fascinating interview they discuss some of the threats facing the species they are working to protect as well as some of the facets of Indian society - and its sometimes striking tolerance for living alongside wildlife - that help to allow  wildlife and people to co-exist.They describe a recent trip in search with Bob Pitman (a 2022 podcast guest) in search of India's remaining two Indus River Dolphins and also explain how Indian Flying Foxes are a cashew-farmer's best friend!For more information visit www.mammalwatching.com/podcastNotes: Jon's recent Borneo trip report - during which a few seconds birding almost cost him his binoculars - is here:Details of the IUCN-approved splitting of the Giraffe into four species is here.Cover art: Kadambari & NachiketDr Charles Foley is a mammalwatcher and biologist who, together with his wife Lara, spent 30 years studying elephants in Tanzania. They now run the Tanzania Conservation Research Program at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.Jon Hall set up mammalwatching.com in 2005. Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. He has looked for mammals in almost 120 countries.