Guess what's on the menu today? Wildlife

How do Indian elephants, known for their deep family ties, organise themselves? How can we conserve the Indian bustard and floricans from the jaws of extinction?

These are some of the questions that will be answered during the plenary talks by eminent conservationists at the four-day Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) that gets underway here on Wednesday.

The conference issues will primarily centre around Asia and Africa. The two continents are home to some of the largest and most enigmatic big cats and mammals in the world and face similar conservation concerns and challenges.

The SCCS, which will host more than 80 research presentations from 14 countries, will discuss among other things original research studies on sparrows in India, butterflies of Kolkata, lemurs in Madagascar and, ways to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.

The first SCCS-Bangalore was held in 2010. The conference is organised by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), and Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT). This event is associated with the student conference on conservation science held in Cambridge University, UK, every year. Eight eminent conservationists will deliver addresses this year, four of which will be non-technical public talks.

Ravi Chellam, one of the senior members of the organising committee, said, “When I was beginning my career in wildlife conservation there were no such opportunities. But today, we are able to have international scientists and conservationists come and talk to us on our home ground. We are now working hard to ensure that the benefits of having these opportunities reach out to a large part of the student community across India, and more widely in Asia and Africa.”

Jahnavi Joshi felt that the workshops that students have registered for will add a lot of value to the conference. “The workshops are geared to train students in different kinds of skills, from study design and critical thinking to simple and complex statistical analyses. Most workshops were filled up almost as soon as the registration opened.”

The second Ravi Sankaran Memorial Lecture, being organised in collaboration with the Ravi Sankaran Foundation and Inlaks India Foundation, will be delivered on the inaugural day by noted ornithologist Nigel J Collar. Patricia Wright from Stony Brook University will talk about her experiences with the conservation of lemurs in Madagascar.

Renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker will talk about his journey in setting up numerous institutions for conducting research and implementing conservation across India and his love for reptiles. Nirmal Kulkarni will talk about the conservation of wildlife corridors and habitats that lie outside protected areas in the Western Ghats.