On the outskirts of the city of Delhi is the sprawling 286-hectare campus of Shiv Nadar University, one of India’s Institutions of Eminence. The university offers courses on many subjects, including natural sciences and engineering. Our campus is surrounded on three sides by farmland and a thriving lake, which may come as a surprise to some who think of India’s capital as a concrete metropolis.
As a university professor, one of us (Dutt) was affected early on by the biodiversity on campus. University researchers have meticulously documented a total of 354 plant species (234 wild and 120 cultivated). Faunal diversity is also rich, with 10 species of mammals, 65 species of birds, nine species of reptiles, five species of amphibians and 54 species of butterflies making the university their home.
But when I spoke to students, I noticed that they knew nothing about the enormous biodiversity around them or the efforts the university was taking to protect it. For years, there was virtually no signage on campus, except for those that read “Don’t throw plastic in the lake” and “Beware of snakes.” Both posts seemed a long way from celebrating the campus flora and fauna. As a science communicator, I wanted to do something about this.
We could have taken pictures of the different species present and posted signs all over campus – universities like mine employ a lot of naturalists teaching and doing research that could have helped. But I had another idea.
Folk art can be a powerful visual and non-verbal tool for communicating complex scientific ideas. I thought, why not use this idea as a way to showcase the university’s biodiversity? I hoped it would arouse both curiosity and perhaps pride. I contacted a folk artist, Sudarshan Shaw, with the aim of creating a biodiversity map of the university campus. He is known for illustrating biodiversity maps of Andhra Pradesh state showing more than 55 species of flora and fauna in a traditional style called kalamkari. Derived from the Hindi word kalammeaning pen, this form of folk art involves an intricate type of painting on cloth.
Sudarshan had also produced his first biodiversity map, representing the state of Odisha, in the patachitra style – an art form said to date back to the 12th century and used for depicting Hindu mythology on a pattaor canvas.
I (Shaw) loved participating in the project. When Bahar came up with her vision to create a biodiversity map for an educational institution, a college campus, it was unique, forward-thinking, and above all, truly local. I knew right away that we were aligned to form a meaningful partnership.
I believe true conservation benefits most from using local voices, language and history and practices, among other things. The majority of people who live in “busyscapes” do not notice non-human species. Encouraging young minds to realize that nature is not far away, but that it can be found all around us every day, everywhere, and that we are an integral part of it – and rekindle their fast-withering curiosity, wonder and awareness – would be a go a long way way to promote wildlife conservation.
Together we decided to make a Biodiversity Map of Shiv Nadar University in the Mughal art style. This style of painting was generally limited to miniatures and was mainly developed where Mughal kings ruled South Asia from 1500 to 1700. I (Shaw) chose the Mughal style because the paintings I know show a harmonious visual language for the contrast that the wilderness is well established in and around architectural marvels. I made this connection myself when I visited the campus and saw the wild places that are allowed to flourish between the architecturally articulated buildings and the carefully curated botanical garden. And Mughal miniature paintings seem to be one of the few folk art forms that stylize drawings that come closest to how flora and fauna forms actually appear, making them more scientifically accurate and giving them a unique tranquil character and visual appeal. I took advantage of the calm during the height of COVID restrictions to paint about 50 species of birds, mammals and flora.
To create the map, we combined three disciplines – ecology (of the campus and its scientists), communication and art – to arrive at a final product set up at different vantage points across the campus (such as the library, the hostel). that students could stop and learn about the natural world around them.
We believe this is the first example of creating a biodiversity map for a built environment. The map has since taken on many forms. We bought fabric from weavers in Banaras, India, whose textile designs date back hundreds of years, and printed the card onto it to make a stole. When guests visit the campus, we offer them a stole as a sign of respect. It has become a precious possession for every member of the Shiv Nadar community.
Since the installation of the biodiversity maps in key locations on campus, students have become more aware of the biodiversity that surrounds them. Indeed, the cards have proven to be an excellent recruiting tool: a student told me (Dutt) in class that when she saw the cards on a tour before enrolling, she “realized this is the university [she] wanted to study in and nowhere else.”
Scientific information can carry a lot of weight. It may not reach all audiences, especially if people have not had access to formal education. We have seen that the use of simple means of communication, such as maps, can generate interest in nature. At Shiv Nadar University, this project showed us that a non-typical visual aid can be powerful in conveying complex terms to an urban, educated target audience while creating a positive attitude towards the nature around them. We invite other universities to explore how folk art can be a teaching tool in a time of climate change and species loss. We believe such projects will have a lasting impact on viewers while communicating concepts related to the science of biodiversity in an unusual, memorable and reliable way.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views of the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American.