So Much To Learn And So Little Time

Ahoy!

On Sunday, 23rd June 2013 (yesterday), I attended an outreach talk by Dr. Jayant Narlikar at the Venture Center in NCL Innovation Park. Dr. Narlikar is one of the most famous and outstanding Indian astrophysicists. Educated in India and then at Cambridge University under the legendary Fred Hoyle, Dr. Narlikar has, over the course of his illustrious career, worked at Cambridge and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai). He is also the founding director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). The talk was on "Strange Events in the Solar System" and was aimed primarily at children younger than me, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to hear Dr. Narlikar speak, and interact with him after the lecture.

After the lecture, as I was heading back to where I am currently staying in Pune, it struck me that the entire audience had been listening with rapt attention to Dr. Narlikar's talk, the old and the young alike. Everyone had been keen to absorb something, to learn something from this global figure. While a small part of my mind went wandering into my thoughts on the great need for more outreach programs, I started thinking of all that I had experience and gained since I started working at NCL. 

Consequently, I have drawn up a list of 7 important things that I learned/understood/realised from since the start of my internship at NCL (in no particular order):

1) The importance of being proactive: At NCL, I am surrounded by a group of people so dedicated to improving technology, research and the betterment of life that sometimes I feel ashamed of myself. I've realised that I have become much more productive after coming here, something that I hope to maintain for the rest of my existence. TV is something that I can now live without!

2) Patience is the virtue of the brave: Scientific research takes time and effort - this is an unavoidable fact. I have just experienced the tip of the iceberg here at NCL, but I have come to appreciate this fact greatly. Preparing proposals, designing equipment, waiting for grant money, carrying the actual experiments out - all of these take time, and patience is a virtue required of any scientist. Also important is the ability to cope with failure (sometimes crippling) and to move beyond it. I learned this firsthand when my initial experimental trial failed, after which I had to do some serious thinking.

3) Innovation is the need of the hour: "Innovation" has been turned into a buzzword by the media, by industry and by the populace as a whole. But true innovation is something that is omnipresent at NCL, something that is needed throughout the country - everywhere from education to R&D, from industry to healthcare to governance.

4) Clarity of Thought: The ability to think clearly, logically without letting emotion cloud judgement is something that I value the most - something that I am trying to cultivate in myself until I'm a lean, mean, thinking machine! My advisor has an excellent mind, and I really look up to him for this. I'm hoping that I can glean the art of thinking from him during my stay here.

5) Scientific Curiosity & Research Methodology: Here at NCL I have had the opportunity to work with 3-4 different scientists and engineers (my mentors and advisers). I have seen how they think and work and got a taste of how research is carried out. For example, while designing the experiment to test the solar steam generation process, I had to think through everything and plan it out completely - anticipate complications, hypothesise the results, and plan out the quantification process. This has been an incredible experience for me in understanding the scientific process.

6) Networking: Building, maintaining and effectively utilising a network can be incredibly helpful. The people that I have been meeting, working and interacting with have showed me the significance and advantages of good networking. They have really extensive networks. Their networks have networks. And why not? Knowing and collaborating with people always comes in handy.

7) Time Management: This is probably the most cliched management lesson, advocated over and over to the point of redundancy. However, it remains the most important life lesson. To quote xkcd's "Time Robot" comic, "Of course, in a sense we are all being stalked by an unstoppable robot. A robot called time." If I come out of this internship at NCL with excellent time management skills, I shall count the experience worth it.

These are the intangibles I have gained from my experience at NCL so far.

Until next time.

Science Is Actually Pretty Great

I'm assuming that you have read my previous blog entries and know what I'm up to these days. For the uninitiated, I'm currently working on a research project (over the summer) at the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in Pune, India. My project is focused on a technology that was initially advanced by a team at Rice University (Texas, USA) - a novel method for efficient steam generation using solar energy and a nanoparticle solution.

When I first started my work here at NCL, my primary task was to sift through prior art and literature to try and understand the fundamentals of the project. This involved my reading and referring to papers written by various researchers on this topic and associated ones, some back-of-the-envelope calculations and discussions with my mentors as we left the firm ground of facts and journeyed into the murky waters of predictions and untested hypotheses.

The phenomenon basically relies on the concept of Localised Surface Plasmon Resonance of the nanoparticles, which is the collective oscillation of electrons on the surface of the particles. It occurs when the frequency of the incident light (electromagnetic radiation) matches the natural frequency of the surface electrons. When sunlight is focused onto the nanoparticle solution, plasmon resonance causes the nanoparticles to be heated up to extremely high temperatures in a very short span of time. This results in the instantaneous evaporation of a thin layer of water around the nanoparticle, forming a steam "nanobubble" with the particle as the nucleus. The low thermal conductivity of steam prevents the transfer of heat into the surrounding solution (this is also due to a fascinating phenomenon called the Leidenfrost Effect, and various thermal barrier mechanisms like Kapitza Resistance, which I shall not elaborate upon for simplicity's sake). Thus, the water does not get heated up in bulk to a significant extent. Herein lies the remarkable energy-efficiency of the process: most of the incident solar energy is utilised in steam formation, and not in the actual heating of the water. Steam is created without actually heating up the water to its boiling point! (The team at Rice demonstrated this very effectively by creating steam from ice-cold water within seconds.)
Anyway, the steam nanobubble, being considerably less dense than water, is quite buoyant, and rises to the surface of the solution. There, the bubble pops, releasing the steam into the atmosphere (or a collection chamber) and the nanoparticle falls back into the solution (in theory). That is another specialty of the phenomenon - its recyclability. However, that is something that I still have to test during the course of my work.
So, extrapolate this to billions of nanoparticles in a 50mL volume of solution and you have a very powerful technology indeed! If properly developed, this phenomenon can be applied to steam generation in resource-poor locations, as it runs entirely on solar power. And since steam is one of the most important industrial fluids, the applications of this technology are potentially limitless!

After many discussion meetings with my supervisors and browsing through innumerable papers online, I finally had an understanding of the phenomenon. We (my mentors and I) felt pretty confident that we might be able to develop it, and my next goal was to try and reproduce the experiments carried out by the research team at Rice University. And that is what I am currently working on.

Since it is currently the monsoon (rainy) season in India, the skies are overcast pretty much all of the time, and chances of obtaining strong sunlight are as high as that of a proton having a negative charge! Consequently, I will be utilising a solar light simulator for my experiments, a piece of equipment that replicates both the intensity and the exact spectrum of the midday sun.
The nanoparticles used by the team at Rice were a unique type of "nanoshells" - particles composed of a silica core and a gold shell. In an attempt to try and reduce the cost of the technology and to simplify the initial trials, I am going to be conducting the initial tests with a dispersion of simple gold nanoparticles in water. These I have already synthesised and characterised, and are ready for use.

The dispersion of Gold nanoparticles in water (also called a Gold colloid) that i synthesised for my experiments.

The one aspect of preparing for my upcoming experiment that was most intellectually stimulating was designing the glassware setup. Since I would be using sensors to measure the pressure of the generated steam and to measure the temperature of the steam and the nanoparticle solution, the glassware would have had to be customised. And so it was.

Planning the design of the glassware was an interesting experience, as I had to think through all the possible scenarios and anticipate problems. Coordinating with my mentors and the glassblower, I managed to hit upon an apt design, which I gave to the glassblower to manufacture.
When I went over to the glassblowing workshop to place my order, it was as if I was Alice and had fallen down the rabbit hole! Glassblowing was a skill that I had previously never given much thought, and I was forced to change my opinions in spectacular fashion. It was as if the glass itself was in tune with the thoughts of the blower! He was an artist, but instead of paintings, sculptures or symphonies, his masterpieces were retorts, condensers and burettes, and they took form amidst the heat of his blowtorch and his fine touch. I had to undergo a painful internal struggle in order to extricate myself from the workshop and return to my work.

Designing the experiment has been a great learning experience, and I can't wait to get started with the actual trials. I finally began to appreciate all the subtleties and thought processes behind experimental science, and I am thoroughly enjoying thinking and working like a scientist, skills that I hope to apply to whatever I do in the future. In a few days the glassware should be ready, and I shall be able to finally see whether my design works or not. While the result does matter a lot, the journey itself has been totally worth it.

Expect to see many more posts on my ongoing work here at NCL!

At NCL (National Chemical Laboratory)

Nestled among the hills, in a peaceful area of the Western Indian city of Pune, lies the National Chemical Laboratory, India's foremost center for research in chemistry and materials science. As an integral member of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and with over 190 senior scientists, NCL is a place steeped in the scientific culture of India. And it is there, in one of India's leading research institutions, that I am working on a research project over this summer, in the heart of my gap year.

Actually, I am currently carrying out my work in the NCL Innovation Park. It is the section of NCL dedicated to (as the name suggests) innovation. Within the Innovation Park is the Venture Center, a not-for-profit organisation dedication to entrepreneurship development and incubation. It provides startups with seed funding, management know-how and lab space to develop their technology. Additionally, experts at Venture Center provide counseling sessions and conduct workshops on technology management and patenting, for fledgling entrepreneurs who are just taking off into the world of technology, business and development.

This trend of tech-incubation is still relatively new in India. Very often it happens that young innovators with brilliant ideas and capabilities get their dreams crushed because of lack of funding, or because they don't know how to play the market well. This was the very problem that Venture Center was created to tackle. Its founder (who, incidentally, is also my research supervisor) aims to create an environment where the path from science to an implementable technology is not ridden with insurmountable obstacles. The center boasts of a library dedicated to entrepreneurship, technology management and patent law, a lab block with state-of-the-art instrumentation that can be rented out, and an enormous POC (proof-of-concept) center where ideas can come to life. All in all, it's the innovator's paradise, and I love it here.

A little bit about my research: I had read about a team of scientists at Rice University who claimed to have come up with a novel technology for super-efficient steam generation using just solar energy. It involved focusing sunlight onto a solution of broadly-absorbing nanoparticles to create steam instantaneously with a very high conversion efficiency. Realising the enormous potential of such a solar-driven technology in a country like India, I approached my would-be advisor here at NCL with my ideas on the topic. He agreed to mentor me and allow me to use the facilities at NCL - so, over this summer, I am conducting research into this phenomenon, looking at ways to improve and optimise it, and working on various applications.

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My (aforementioned) advisor is a remarkable man, with a brilliant mind. He is highly logical, deeply insightful and extremely practical. Along with his research in polymers, he also finds the time to manage and run Venture Center, hold meetings with potential clients, guide interns and co-workers and spend time with his family! (Phew!) He embodies the very mission that the NCL Innovation Park stands for. His enthusiasm and drive are quite infectious, and I'm quite glad that I got this opportunity to work with him.

The work that I'm currently doing at NCL (more about that in the next post) requires me to collaborate with 3 other scientists (experts in multiphase systems, nanotechnology and photonics), since I am not an accomplished scientist in any of these fields. I eagerly look forward to my discussions with them, for how often does one get to interact with 3 excellent scientists? Their inputs and advice have been invaluable, and have definitely spurred me along in my research. What I found most amazing is that none of them have doubted my capabilities! None of them looked down upon me as an inferior being because I've just finished high school! They take complete interest in my work and are always ready to add their suggestions and insights. This attitude of theirs has taught me an important lesson: everyone has their own strengths and qualities, and that one should always take someone seriously when approached - not brush them aside just because they might be "under-qualified"! Each individual that I have collaborated with so far has been extremely helpful, and that is a quality I look to cultivate in myself.

Besides my research, the highlights of my stay here at NCL are definitely the talks and seminars that I get to attend. Since these talks by visiting scientists are not open to the general public, I'm literally seizing every opportunity that I get to attend them! These lectures are my window into scientific research as it is carried out in the real world, and interacting with various scientists and students during the seminars is a great way to network with new people (something that my stint at NCL has taught me the value of).

NCL and the Innovation Park are excellent institutions, very conducive to creativity and inspiring thought. Even the location and ambiance are perfect - there is something about looking out the window and gazing upon dense foliage or a flock of Lapwings that agrees with me. I seem to have entered one of the most productive periods of my 17-year existence, and I am enjoying every femtosecond of it! Despite being the only 17 - year old on campus (the other interns are all graduates), I don't feel out of place here. Be it working on my research project, interacting with my supervisors or discussing the latest advancements in science with the other interns, I have only experience to gain and ideas to get exposed to.

My complaining stomach is reminding me that I haven't eaten in 6 hours, and that dinner is due. But before I sign off, I would like to mention that my next blog entry is going to be about my project, and the work that I am doing here at NCL.

Until next time. 

On Wildlife Conservation and How Not To Get Trampled By Elephants - Part Two

Hello all.

As I mentioned before (see my post titled "On Wildlife Conservation and How Not To Get Trampled By Elephants - Part One"), this blog entry is on the second part of my internship at the Wildlife Institute of India. Actually, I should rephrase that statement, because this phase of my internship was in the field (i.e, in the wild) - at Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand, India.

Corbett National Park is one of India's oldest, most famous, and (despite the heavy tourist traffic all year round) pristine national parks. It is named after the famed hunter-turned-conservationist James Corbett, a man worthy of legend. Besides a whole range of accomplishments in his lifetime, he managed to hunt and kill around 50 man-eating tigers and more than 150 man-eating leopards, ridding the hills of Uttarakhand of the fear that enveloped them. However, he wasn't the cold-blooded hunter that he seems to be, he was a man with a vision - he dedicated the latter half of his life to the conservation of forests and wildlife. With his awe-inspiring knowledge of flora and fauna and jungle lore, he recognised the beauty of India's natural wealth - a beauty that I am sorry to say, not every Indian appreciates.

"The tiger is a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage and when he is exterminated - as exterminated he will be unless public opinion rallies to his support - India will be the poorer by having lost the finest of her fauna."

                                                                                                                        - Jim Corbett (1875 - 1955)

And it is there, in the National Park named after this legendary gentleman, that my story continues . . . . . . . 

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I was working with another PhD student as part of the project "Monitoring Source Population of Tigers in Corbett Tiger Reserve" being conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in collaboration with Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR). The work involved estimating prey (tiger prey) abundance through DISTANCE sampling and Carnivore Sign Surveys and training of the Forest Guards in carrying out these surveys. But before I launch into a description of the work that we did in CTR, a bit of background information might be in order.

In order to better study the tiger, wildlife scientists have to (for obvious reasons) study its prey. DISTANCE sampling is usually carried out to study the population densities and dynamics of Ungulates (Deer, Monkeys, Elephants, Cattle and so on). It involves carrying out Line Transects, in which randomly placed lines (of 2 - 3 km) are selected in the region under study (CTR has over 90 line transects). The researchers walk along these lines and spot the ungulates present on either side. Using a laser-equipped range finder, a GPS unit and a magnetic compass, the perpendicular distance of each animal from the line is calculated. The raw data is then fed into a software which uses statistical analysis methods and extrapolation to calculate the population density of that particular species over the whole park. (Pretty neat, huh?) Carnivore Sign Surveys, on the other hand, involve walking along random paths in the jungle and spotting various signs that indicate the presence of carnivores in that area - scat (faeces) samples, pugmarks, scratch marks in the ground and on trees, etc. Another very useful technique for studying animals (especially tigers) is Camera Trapping - pairs of Infrared cameras (facing each other) are installed at strategic locations all over the region under study. The cameras take photographs of animals as they pass in between, and the photos are then analysed using another software. Since no two tigers have the exact same stripe pattern, camera trapping is an extremely powerful tool for studying individual tigers in a park.

An Infrared camera in position for Camera Trapping

Here are some photos that I took during the Line Transects and the Carnivore Sign Surveys:

Chital (Spotted Deer)

A couple of Sambar Deer

Claw marks made by a tiger on a plum tree (the marks were positioned way higher than my head, and I'm 5 feet 11 inches tall, so you can imagine the size of the animal that gouged these onto the tree!

Pugmark of a male tiger (you can tell its a male tiger by the squarish overall shape of the mark).

During my internship at Corbett, I would be like a research fellow, not a tourist. As a result, I would have free access to the entire park, just like any other wildlife scientist. I would be able to get out of the vehicle in the middle of the forest, and enter the core area of the Park (things that are strict no-no's for your ordinary tourists!) Anyway, before we left for the National Park from the Wildlife Institute, I was given some pretty important instructions - regarding the rules and ways of the jungle.
The conversation went something like this:

Scientist: "As you might know, wild elephants are the most dangerous and feared animals in Corbett Tiger Reserve. I mean, they literally annihilate any foreign object that they perceive as a threat."
Me: "Okayyy . . . . "
Scientist: "Basically, if an elephant charges at you when you are on foot in the forest, just run. Run like you've never run before . . . ."
Me: "........................."
(It was at this point that I realised he wasn't joking).
Scientist: "However, if you encounter a tiger and it prepares to attack, your best bet would be to climb the nearest tree. It's futile to try and outrun a tiger."
Me: "Couldn't you have told me all of this before?"

It was only later in the internship that I learned that the grad student I was working under had previously been chased by an enormous male elephant, and had narrowly escaped the hand of death when a tiger had passed from two feet behind him . . .

The entire herd gazing at the unwelcome visitor (me)

The King of Corbett, lurking in the bushes

Life-threatening dangers notwithstanding, I still went through with the internship. And it was worth every second of it, and more. It was the experience of atleast a couple of lifetimes.

Being a wildlife researcher might sound glamorous, but believe me, it isn't. They live a hard life. I got a taste of it during my stay in CTR. The accommodations were basic - they had 4 walls, a roof and running water, so there was no inconvenience, but that was it. We had two research assistants with us (locals), who were practically men Fridays - they were quite skilled in the kitchen too.
The weather didn't help either. North India can be extremely hot in summer (I'm talking soul-sucking, plant-shriveling heat). Temperatures were consistently in excess of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and at times I would wish I were a desert rabbit, so that I could regulate my body temperature via my large ears!You might imagine that I had a hard time, but the truth is I enjoyed living like that. It was in the midst of wilderness, and it was unbelievably beautiful.

The more I thought about it, the more I admired the wildlife scientists. They regularly stay in forests like Corbett National Park for months on end, tirelessly working to preserve the country's natural heritage. They are, in my opinion, the true heroes. Other remarkable people I met and interacted with during my stay in CTR were the local villagers. They live an extremely hard life, are sometimes attacked by wild carnivores and elephants, and earn measly amounts of money that do not fulfill all their needs. Yet they maintain an unbelievably positive outlook on life, and for this I salute them. I came across a man whose legs had been mauled by a tiger a couple of months ago, yet still had the unfathomable courage to smile.

I am sorry to say that governmental apathy and red tape do play their part in increasing the difficulty of both the wildlife scientists and the local villagers (the villagers even more so). Researchers face the inefficiency of bureaucracy at every step, be it obtaining grant money or implementing their research goals. The forest guards (mostly comprised of villagers) receive meager salaries and almost no training. And people wonder why poaching and illegal trade in animal body parts is so rampant. Often the poachers are villagers themselves who have resorted to such desperate measures just to make two ends meet.

Like Jim Corbett, I believe that one of the solutions is generating public awareness. I also believe that it is the role of the media to highlight the incredible work being carried out by researchers and dedicated naturalists towards wildlife conservation (besides the usual celebrity gossip). Towards the purpose of spreading the message, I gave a series of talks and presentations at the Vivekananda Youth Forum (where I do volunteer work  - see my blog post titled "The Vivekananda Youth Forum") on the importance of wildlife preservation and the work being carried out to that effect.

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Truth be told, I hadn't expected Corbett National Park to have a rich variety of bird life (atleast, not as rich as in Dandeli Forest Reserve, for example). I was proved wrong in spectacular fashion - the place was a veritable aviary! Here are some of the magnificent winged creatures that I spotted in the forest:

Common Hoopoe

Crested Serpent Eagle

Rufous Treepie

Brown-Headed Barbet

Indian Cormorant

Red-Wattled Lapwing

Black Partridge (And no, it's not in a pear tree)

For a budding ornithologist and an ardent lover of nature like myself, this internship was a dream come true. I gained knowledge of a plethora of things - ways of the jungle, research techniques, wildlife survival and lots more. All my life I had wished I could do something really concrete for wildlife conservation, and this was the perfect opportunity. I got to meet some extraordinary people, and gained insights into their ideas and opinions. It was for the scientific experience that I had gone for this internship, and I came out with so much more. Despite the ever-present dangers (we had an armed guard with us whenever we walked in the jungle for our surveys), the lack of luxury and the scorching heat, the days I spent in Corbett were some of the most invaluable ones of my life.

On Wildlife Conservation and How Not To Get Trampled By Elephants - Part One

My schedule has been pretty packed of late. Ergo, I have a lot to blog about, and I'm going to split my tale into 2 parts (this post and the next two). But first, a little background information . . .

I love animals, birds and pretty much any kind of wildlife (Irrespective of size, shape, odour, texture and tendency to intimidate). I am the kind of person who would marvel at its magnificence while face-to-face with a ravenous crocodile. Ornithology and Trekking are two of my biggest interests, and I am completely at ease in the wildest of forests.

So I'm guessing you can imagine my reaction when recently, I got an opportunity to work with one of India's pre-eminent wildlife scientists!

The aforementioned scientist, Dr. Y. Jhala, works at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), located in the sleepy city of Dehradun in the hilly Indian state of Uttarakhand. WII is the leading wildlife research centre in India, and the work going on over there is quite amazing. They are concerned with everything from carrying out the Indian National Tiger Census to using wildlife forensics techniques to provide conclusive evidence in poaching cases. Being the nature-loving, wildlife-obsessed individual that I am, I couldn't wait to hop on the first flight to Dehradun from Mumbai, with my spanking new digital camera slung around my neck!

The student's hostel at WII

Another building at WII - just to give you an idea of the place

Without burdening you with unnecessary, cumbersome details, I shall start my narrative from when I reached WII and started my work. . .

My internship was divided into 2 phases - work in the lab and work in the field.

Genetics has always been an intriguing subject to me, but I never got a first-hand, practical experience of the multitude of its applications through all my high school years. Up until now, DNA was always a stringy, helical macromolecule to me. Working in the genetics lab at WII changed all of that. I was working under the supervision of a PhD student of Dr. Jhala's, and my project was based on using genetic analysis for wildlife conservation. For wildlife scientists, the samples most easily available in the wild are scat (faeces) samples. Using genetic analysis techniques, researchers can identify the species, sex and even each individual animal from these scat samples! Not only does this help them keep a track of various animals in a region, but also study the population dynamics and gene pool of a particular species. In this manner, they can even analyse the distribution of alleles in a population and determine whether viable corridors exist between two populations.

One of the difficulties that naturalists face in the wild is that tiger scat and leopard scat are similar in appearance. It is a combination of analytical techniques that helps them differentiate between the samples of these two big cats, which is necessary if they are studying a particular species out of the two. My project in the genetics lab at WII, a part of the overall research project of my supervisor, involved studying scat samples collected in the field and determining whether each sample had come from a tiger or a leopard.

To do this, I had to carry out a number of experimental analysis procedures - Silica based Nucleic Acid extraction to isolate the genetic material from the samples, PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Amplification for replication of selected Mitochondrial DNA fragments, and Gel Electrophoresis to verify the results of PCR and to obtain conclusive proof of the species from which each sample had been obtained. The final results were interpreted by comparing the diffusion of each sample with that of a known DNA ladder and a pre-decided positive control.

A photo of me vortexing solutions for homogeneity

Incubation of the samples is an integral part of the DNA extraction process

A PCR Machine

Yours truly preparing the samples for Gel Electrophoresis

The experimental setup for Electrophoresis

The final results of the 2nd electrophoresis

Working on this project was an invaluable experience - not only did I learn how to carry out and apply a range of experimental techniques, but also honed my laboratory management skills. I learnt how to work efficiently in a lab - carrying out experiments systematically, while making sure that they are as foolproof as possible. I also understood that failure is a fickle maiden that may present herself during any scientific endevour (when some of the samples did not get amplified correctly during PCR), and the importance of keeping faith in oneself and one's abilities during such times. The realisation dawned upon me that scientific exploration is a never-ending struggle to understand our universe, during which one has to keep reinventing one's thought processes to cope with the problem at hand.

WII also has an outstanding wildlife forensics lab (the only one of its kind in India). It was there that I got to interact and share ideas with some of the most passionate people that I have ever met - people committed to wildlife conservation with a remarkable degree of resolution. This kind of commitment to one's work can only be possible when one loves and truly believes in it. The forensics lab at WII is fully equipped with top-of-the-line instruments and is an integral institution in the fight against poaching and black-market trade in animal body parts. 

During my internship at WII, I had a major epiphany when I experienced first-hand the scale at which wildlife research is being carried out in India. I got the opportunity to meet a large number of remarkable, like-minded individuals who are the silent heroes at the forefront of wildlife conservation in the country. I was also saddened by the fact that the general public has no idea of the wonderful work being carried out at institutes like WII, and I think that the Indian media is partly to blame for not highlighting this.

To a nature-lover like myself, the WII campus was like paradise - heavily wooded, with a variety of birds dotting the trees all around - kites, lapwings, bulbuls, kestrels, and many more. The campus is often frequented by wild leopards and boar, looking for their next meal (my single biggest regret of the internship was that I didn't come across a leopard; my camera would have probably burst with excitement!)

A nice snap of a Red Wattled Lapwing that I managed to get outside the student's hostel in the WII campus.

I am an environmentalist at heart. Irrespective of what career path I follow in the future, I want to be able to contribute significantly to environmental protection and wildlife conservation. The experience I have accumulated at WII has fueled this desire to even greater levels, and has provided me with a starting point on which I can build over the years.

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This blog post has been about one part of my recent internship at WII; I shall write about the other part in the next one (tentatively titled: On Wildlife Conservation and How Not To Get Trampled By Elephants - Part Two). More light shall be shed on the meaning behind the title in the next post.