Assistant Professor
B.Sc (Zoology): Saurashtra University, Gujarat, 1994
M.Sc (Wildlife Sciences): Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2001
M.Sc (Anthropology): University College London, 2009
Ph.D (Anthropology): National University of Singapore, 2015
Email: a.ambika@iitgn.ac.in
Research Interests: Wildlife Conservation, Indigenous peoples, Northeast India, Social and Environmental Justice, Himalayan Borderlands
Prof Aiyadurai is interested in the human dimensions of wildlife conservation, with particular interest in understanding human-animal relations and community-based conservation. Her ongoing and long-term research aims are to understand how local and global forces shape the human-animal relations. Major focus of research is to explore alternate ways of understanding nature and nature conservation, especially, focusing on indigenous knowledge systems.
Publications
Books/ book chapters:
Aiyadurai, A.; Chattopadhyay, A. and Choksi, N. (eds.), Ecological Entanglements: Affect, Embodiment and Ethics of Care, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, Mar. 2023, ISBN: 9789354422591.
Aiyadurai, A.; Chattopadhyay, A. and Choksi, N., “Introduction”, in Ecological Entanglements: Affect, Embodiment and Ethics of Care, Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, Mar. 2023, ISBN: 9789354422591.
Delley, R. and Aiyadurai, A., “Eno: Eco-spiritual Water Climes of Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh”, Storying Multipolar Climes of the Himalaya, Andes and Arctic Anthropocenic Climate and Shapeshifting Watery Lifeworlds (eds. Dan S. Yu & J. Wouters), Routledge, Mar. 2023.
Aiyadurai, A., “Review of the book Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas” by R. Govindrajan, Conservation & Society, DOI: 10.4103/cs.cs_19_138, Jan. 2020.
Aiyadurai, A., “Review of the book Religion and Ecological Sustainability in China” by James Miller, Dan Smyer Yu and Peter van der Veer, Journal of Chinese Religions, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 230-233, Nov. 2019.
Aiyadurai, A., “Hunting in Northeast India and the challenges of implementing the wildlife protection act”, Nature conservation in the new economy: people, wildlife and the law in India, New Delhi, Orient BlackSwan, pp. 31-54, 2019, ISBN: 9789352876136.
Aiyadurai, A.; Idu Mishmis’ Social Worlds: Animals, Humans and Spirits in Change and continuity among tribes: The Idu Mishmis of Arunachal Pradesh (eds. T. Mene and S. Chaudhuri); Mittal Publications, 2019.
Aiyadurai, A. and Velho, N., “The last hunters of Arunachal Pradesh: the past and present of wildlife hunting in North-east India”, Conservation from the margins, Orient BlackSwan, June 2018, ISBN: 9789352872824.
Journal papers:
Aiyadurai, A. and Patil, Y., “How guns, cameras, binoculars and smartphones changed bird-watching”, TheWire.in, Mar. 31, 2022.
Aiyadurai, A.; Rangan, H.; Baviskar, A.; Narain, S.; Pande, V., “Review of the book The Chipko movement: a people’s history by S. Pathak and Manisha Chaudhary”, Conservation & Society, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 47-53, Mar. 2022.
Aiyadurai, A. and Ingole, P., “Invisibility of caste in environmental studies”, Indian Express, Nov. 29, 2021.
Banerjee, S.; Aiyadurai, A., “Everyday conservation: a study of actors and processes in an elephant conservation project in Assam, India”, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, DOI: 10.1080/10871209.2021.1970861, Sep. 2021.
Aiyadurai, A. and Banerjee, S., “Understanding borderlands through elephant corridors in the Yunnan–Myanmar–Bengal landscape”, in Yunnan–Burma–Bengal corridor geographies, DOI: 10.4324/9781003094364-7, London: Routledge India, pp. 85-104, Sep. 2021, ISBN: 9780367556228.
Aiyadurai, A., “Dilemmas of wildlife research in Arunachal”, Seminar (Special Issue: Future Environmentalisms), vol. 744, pp. 19-23, Aug. 2021.
Aiyadurai, A., “The real sherni: how Avni put the spotlight on the complex nature of tiger conservation in India”, Scroll.in, July 5, 2021.
Aiyadurai, A., “Tigers are Our Brothers: Anthropology of Wildlife Conservation in Northeast India”, India: Oxford University Press, June 2021, ISBN: 9780190129101.
Aiyadurai, A., “Enjoy Enjaami: a call for ecological and social justice”, Countercurrents.org, Mar. 27, 2021.
Aiyadurai, A. and Pandya, M., “Tales from Dibang Valley: why are the akru’s horns curved?”, Current Conservation, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 15-19, 2021.
Aiyadurai, A., “The implications of legal personhood to nonhumans: insights from India’s tiger conservation”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, DOI: 10.1093/isle/isaa061, Sep. 2020.
Aiyadurai, A., “Voices from Dibang Valley: Idu Mishmi, wildlife biologists and a wildlife sanctuary”, Current Conservation, vol. 14, no. 1, Sep. 2020.
Nicolaisen, J.; Aiyadurai, A. and Duara, P., “Trans-species listening and the rights of nature: legal persons beyond the human: introduction to special cluster in ISLE 27.3”, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, DOI: 10.1093/isle/isaa058, Aug. 2020.
Aiyadurai, A. and Banerjee, S., “Bird conservation from obscurity to popularity: a case study of two bird species from Northeast India”, GeoJournal, 112, DOI 10.1007/s10708-019-09999, Mar. 2019.
Aiyadurai, A., “The Multiple Meanings of Nature Conservation – Insights from Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh”, Economic and Political Weekly, 53 (39): 37-44, 2019.
Aiyadurai, Ambika, “The multiple meanings of nature conservation: insights from Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh”, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 53, no. 39, pp. 37-44, Sep. 2018.
Popular Articles:
Aiyadurai, A., “Adornment in the wild: Bone ornaments of the Idu Mishmi. Ornaments”, 43 (3): 56-59, 2023.
Aiyadurai, A., “Even after a century, water is still the marker of India’s caste society”, TheWire.in, Aug. 23, 2022.
Papers presented at conferences:
Aiyadurai, A., “Tribes, Environment and the State: Contemporary Research from India’s Northeast”, jointly organized by Humanities and Social Sciences, IITGN and Department of Anthropology, Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh, funded by Anthropological Survey of India, ICSSR-New Delhi & Shillong, Mar. 6-7, 2023.
Ameh-anji and Ili-amra: Boar hunting and pig sacrifice among the Idu Mishmis’ by Prof Ambika Aiyadurai in a workshop “What is hunting? Anthropological perspectives of Boar hunting” at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic; Nov. 27-30, 2022.
Aiyadurai, A., “Multispecies Ethnography”, presented at Environmental Humanities workshop, Ooty (Tamil Nadu), organised by the University of Pennsylvania and Dakshin Foundation, May 16-17, 2019.
Aiyadurai, A., “Multiple Ontologies of Wildlife Conservation in India”, presented at British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS), Durham University, UK, Apr. 3-5, 2019.
Aiyadurai, A., “Hunting in Northeast India and the challenges of implementing Wildlife Protection Act”, Department of Biological Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Mar. 5, 2019.
Aiyadurai, A., “Understanding the social world of the Mishmis using Multispecies Ethnography”, presented at Locating Northeast India: Human Mobility, Resource Flows, and Spatial Linkages. Department of Sociology, University of Tezpur, Assam. Jan. 9-12, 2019.
Aiyadurai, A., “Can tigers be our brothers?: Changing human-animal relations in the Mishmi Hills, Northeast India”, presented at Trans-species Listening and Rights of Nature: Legal persons beyond the Human, Duke Global Asia Initiative and Duke Nichols School of the Environment, Durham, US, Oct. 5, 2018.
Aiyadurai, A., “Why there is a rise in Birdwatching in India”, presented at AAS-in-Asia, Ashoka University and Association for Asian Studies, New Delhi, July 5-8, 2018.
Aiyadurai, A., “Caste and nature: Dalits and Indian environmental politics” by Mukul Sharma, Seminar, 704; Apr. 2018.
Aiyadurai, A.; Li, Y. and Banerjee, S., “Wildlife conservation and the role of local communities: perspectives from India and China”, in the Yunnan-Burma-Bengal Corridor: Process Geographies in the Making of Modern Asia, Yunnan Minzu University, China, Apr. 17-19, 2018.
Aiyadurai, A., “Introduction to Social Science Research in Conservation” for wildlife biology students, Organized by Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) at Amity Institute of Wildlife and Forestry, Noida, Mar. 18-19, 2018.
Aiyadurai, A, “Human-Animal relations: A view from the Mishmi hills”, Seminar, #702, issue: 1-8, Feb. 2018.
Projects
History, science & technology of wildlife hunting and trapping in Arunachal Pradesh; Indian National Science Academy
Mangroves stories in Gujarat; Social Science Research Council
Field Assistants in Wildlife Research and Conservation: Case studies from Arunachal Pradesh; National Tiger Conservation Agency
