By Kanchan Anand Joshi
Dr. Priya Davidar is one of the first women ecologists
in India. She was born in 1952, and was the eldest amongst the children. She feels
that she became an ecologist through fortunate set of circumstances. Her father
was E.R.C. Davidar, a big game hunter who later gave up the gun and became a
wildlife photographer and conservationist. Her father took her for fishing and trekking
in wilderness areas, which gave her the spirit of adventure and curiosity about
life around her. It is perhaps not surprising that Dr. Davidar chose to become a field
biologist. She earned her Ph.D. from the
Bombay Natural History Society under the supervision of Dr. Salim Ali – ‘the
bird man of India’. She personally feels that her advisor was gender blind and
supported all his students.
She came to the US in 1981 for her post-doctoral studies and
found she had a lot of catching up to do in terms of scientific and analytical
skills. Although most people were warm
and friendly, race and gender were undercurrents that were difficult to ignore
at times. The support of many outstanding
scientists in US helped her. Despite her impressive field experience, Dr.
Davidar remained unsure about the job prospects for an ecologist in India, so
she completed her M.S. from Harvard school of Public Health and studied immune
responses of rodents to the deer tick. But she soon realized that she was not
interested in human related health diseases, and took the opportunity to return
to India when she was offered a faculty position at the newly established
Pondicherry University in 1987. Dr. E. O. Wilson has this to say about her
decision to return to India: "When
she chose to return to India, I knew she had a remarkable opportunity to play a
pioneering role in ecology and biogeography, which she has achieved”.
Coming back to India
was an opportunity to do field work in remote areas, as well as a shock, due to
the politics, mediocrity and often times brutality of academic life. Caste, region and gender have overwhelming
influence in professional life in India, she found. My advice to researchers from disadvantaged
backgrounds unwelcome in upper-caste networks is to find collaborators who are
supportive to buffer the harshness," she says. "Being persistent and
carrying on despite difficulties is important. What I found is, time is an important
ally that leads to eventual success." She received hostility from male colleagues
too. “They suggested that I get married and stay in the kitchen”. “I used to
take it quite personally and suffered a lot. Now, I realize this only creates
needless stress for oneself,” she says.
Overcoming all these
obstacles, Dr. Davidar has held a post at Pondicherry University’s Salim Ali
School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences since 1987, and carried out
research in diverse fields such as pollination biology, island biogeography,
species distribution patterns, and conservation biology. She has advised more than 30 MS
students and 12 Ph.D.’s have been awarded under her guidance. She has more than
90 publications. Of late, there has been a shift in the focus of her research.
She is actively working in the field of grass roots conservation and
together with her husband Jean-Philippe
Puyravaud carry out research and training at the Sigur Nature Trust, a
nonprofit nature oriented charitable trust. She feels that relationships are
among the most important aspects of a career. Dr. Davidar’s father and Dr.
Salim Ali were important early influences for her. Also her encounter with
Jean-Philippe Puyravaud changed the course of her life. She married him and her
career!
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