Nature Conservation Foundation

This Independence Day, come find us at the Makkala Mela happening as part of the Freedom Habba in Vidhana Soudha! Join us for a day of fun nature-themed activities and learn about caterpillars, butterflies, seed dispersal and more.

Time: 12 pm onwards
Venue: Vidhana Soudha

To know about how to attend please visit Freedom Habba

The Ghost of the Mountains by NCF scientist Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi takes readers into the world of the elusive snow leopard, drawing on nearly two decades of fieldwork in the high Himalayas.

Pre-order your copy from Champaca: https://champaca.in/products/the-ghost-of-the-mountains-pre-order

The submission deadline for abstracts for speed talks has been extended to 15 July 2026!

Participants are welcome to send in any work or work-in-progress that is relevant to bird monitoring in India. Please note that speed talks will be 5 mins long.

Selected participants will be required to record and send their speed talks one week before the event. The recorded videos will be played during the allocated time and the video will be followed by a text-based Q&A.

Please fill this form to submit your abstracts : https://forms.gle/a7299iBMwnCeymUp6

For more information, please visit https://www.birdmonitoring.in/

For queries, please write to [email protected]

Abstract submissions are now open for speed talks!

Bird Monitoring in India is an online symposium that will be hosted on Discord, facilitated by Zoom and live streamed on YouTube.

Participants are welcome to send in any work or work-in-progress that is relevant to bird monitoring in India. Please note that speed talks will be 5 mins long.

Selected participants will be required to record and send their speed talks a few weeks before the event. The recorded videos will be played during the allocated time and the video will be followed by a text-based Q&A.

Please fill this form to submit your abstracts. Form - https://forms.gle/AVA3krq8DmwRNeRB6

The last date to send in your abstract is 10 July 2026.

Selected presenters will be notified by 25 July 2026.

For more information, please visit www.birdmonitoring.in

For queries, please write to [email protected]

We're looking for someone to support the training of students and conservation practitioners in interdisciplinary conservation.

This role is perfect for someone who enjoys working with students, faculty, practitioners and diverse stakeholders while helping build capacity for conservation in India.

Details here:
https://www.ncf-india.org/conservation-leadership/academic-coordinator

Interested in conservation but new to legal systems? This course aims to demystify the law and build your capacity to engage critically with conservation issues.

Enrol now! Details here: https://www.ncf-india.org/conservation-leadership/courses-in-conservation-leadership

Dates: 21st to 24th July, 2026
Maximum number of participants: 20
Location: Bangalore
Course instruction medium: English, Malayalam, Hindi

If you are looking for meaningful way to celebrate World Environment Day, here's a new book by NCF scientist T. R. Shankar Raman, illustrated by Manali Patil, that celebrates fifty of India's native trees and takes you on a journey to know them better.

Available for preorder on Champaca, you can purchase it from here: https://champaca.in/products/the-trees-of-my-country-a-natural-history-of-india-in-50-trees?variant=42450808897571

or other bookstores where copies should be available very soon!

We are excited to be back with the 2026 edition of Bird Monitoring in India Symposium! This year the symposium will be held on 11- 12 Sept 2026.

Every year you have been participating in mini-symposia themes decided by the organising committee.

This year, we are inviting the participants to suggest themes of mini-symposia related to bird monitoring. If you would like to suggest a theme and host a mini-symposium this year please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/CMTk5RpBok5UyoZB9

Out of the entries, 2-4 will be selected for this year.

The proposed themes should be relevant to long-term bird monitoring in India. Past themes have included: monitoring wetland birds, understanding causes of population change, using passive acoustic monitoring for studying birds, bird atlases and more.

For more information on our past events, please visit www.birdmonitoring.in

You are also welcome to partner up with a collaborator to host your mini symposia.

The deadline to send in your entry is 5 June 2026. The selected hosts will be free to choose the format for the mini-symposia.

Each mini-symposium theme will be allocated 2 hours during the 2-day event. Hosts are free to plan this in a manner they would like. In the past we have had various talk formats – Keynotes, Short talks, Panel discussions, Speed talks, etc.

For queries, please write to [email protected]

We are honoured to receive the Ecological Society of America Sustainability Science Award for Scholarly Work for the study “Biocultural vulnerability of traditional crops in the Indian Trans-Himalaya,” published in Science Advances.

This study conducted collaboratively by farmers from Spiti, Stanford University (USA), and Nature Conservation Foundation, has scientifically substantiated what most in the valley already knew: the culturally important black pea can play a vital role in sustainable farming.

We are grateful to all the farmers, collaborators, and co-authors who made this work possible.

Authors:
Harman P.K. Jaggi, Akshata Anand, Katherine A. Solari, Alejandra Echeverri, Rinchen Tobge, Tanzin Tsewang, Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi, and Shripad Tuljapurkar

Head here to know more about the award: https://esa.org/blog/2026/05/06/ecological-society-of-america-announces-2026-award-recipients/

If you are interested in biodiversity, nature engagement, working with college students across India, and would like to be part of a team connecting young people with nature, we would like to hear from you!

We are looking for a Project Coordinator for our Nature on Campus project. For details, visit: https://www.ncf-india.org/education-and-public-engagement/project-coordinator-education-and-public-engagement