Dia Mirza needs no introduction. And yet, the person who shows up in this conversation is not quite the one her public life has made familiar to us. Yes, she is the longest-serving UNEP Goodwill Ambassador India has had, and yes, she carries the full weight of that role: the access, the diplomatic constraints, the careful calibration of when to speak and how. But what drives her goes back much further — to a childhood in Hyderabad spent watching cobras without fear and absorbing, through a mother's quiet alarm, the first inklings that the world's body was getting sick. In this episode, we talk about mangroves under threat in Maharashtra, the extractive mindset that patriarchy and profit share, why environmental stories still can't find mainstream oxygen, and where -- despite everything -- she finds reasons to keep going. We're releasing this on World Earth Day — it felt like the right day to begin Season 2, and Dia feels like the right person to get the season started.

SHOW NOTES: ABOUT DIA MIRZA
Official UN profile: https://unpartnerships.un.org/dia-mirza

Where it began: the UNEP announcement of Dia's appointment and mandate: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories...

IFAW wildlife advocacy award: https://www.asianstandard.co.uk/dia-m...

Detailed Wiki entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_Mirza

On Global Landscapes Forum, Dia traces her environmental awakening to witnessing plastic wase in the Himalayas: https://thinklandscape.globallandscap...

DIA'S TALKS:
A December 2023

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In this season-ending episode of From The Marginlands, Arati and I dive deep into Indian forests, not just as ecosystems but as archives of memory, power, and change. Our guide into this layered terrain is Raza Kazmi, who helps us explore how history helps explain present-day conservation realities, from the shifting fortunes of tiger populations to the erasure of forest places from both maps and memory.

What stories do forests tell when we stop treating them as static backdrops and start reading them as historical texts? And how do human policies, economic forces, and cultural blind spots shape the fate of forests and the communities entwined with them?

This is a conversation about loss, certainly, but it is also about interpretation, about continuity, and about what it means to see land and life in their full, historical depth. Errata: Raza meant to say "Kispotta" clan when he said Kerketta clan while referring to their totem.

ABOUT RAZA KAZMI:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/razakazmi_rk/
Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/raza-kazmi/portfolio
Raza's bio: https://www.currentconservation.org/people/raza-kazmi/
https://sanctuarynaturefoundation.org/article/meet-s.e.h.-kazmi-and-raza-kazmi

TALKS/INTERVIEWS
Forests, History, and Conservation: A wide-ranging talk on forests as historical landscapes, conservation beyond numbers, and how memory reshapes ecological understanding:
https://youtu.be/cnRMhAcWJBw

Personal History & Conservation Trajectory: An interview weaving Raza’s personal journey into forests, his family history, and the intellectual path that led him to wildlife history:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLrCP4gsOoQ

ESSAYS & OPINION
The Lost Character in Aranyer Din Ratri: The Kechki Forest Rest House: A meditation on forests, cinema, and memory, using a vanished forest rest house to explore how places slip out of India’s cultural and ecological imagination: https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/the-lost-character-in-satyajit-rays-aranyer-din-ratri-the-kechki-forest-rest-house-10039903/

As India’s Tiger Numbers Rise, a Troubling Trend Can Be Seen (Indian Express, 2023): A sharp critique of headline tiger successes that mask habitat loss, uneven recovery, and deeper structural failures in conservation policy : https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/raza-kazmi-writes-as-indias-tiger-numbers-rise-a-troubling-trend-can-be-seen-8548504/

The Last of the Forest Giants: Exploring the story of Central India’s wild buffaloes and their struggle for survival in a shrinking landscape : https://www.wildlifeconservationtrust.org/the-last-of-the-forest-giants-central-indias-wild-buffaloes/

Birdwoman: Raza Kazmi on Jamal Ara, India’s first “birdwoman,” whose pioneering ornithological work in Jharkhand laid the foundations for regional wildlife history and whose legacy Raza helped recover : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/if-indias-first-birdwoman-were-alive-jharkhands-wildlife-would-have-been-different/articleshow/104723327.cms

More stories: An archive of Raza's writings in the Hindu, covering a vast expanse of themes: https://www.thehindu.com/profile/author/raza-kazmi-3786/

PODCAST:
Fragmented Forests — Stories from the Subverse: A conversation on capitalism, extraction, charismatic wildlife, and why forest fragmentation — not just species loss — defines India’s ecological crisis: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4JjrPtvXgICqSfYlY4MtfC

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Arati Kumar-Rao on Instagram
Prem Panicker on X (Twitter)
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From The Marginlands on Instagram

Leopards live far closer to us than most of us realise — not just in forests, but across farms, villages, and city edges. In this episode, Arati and Prem speak with Dr. Vidya Athreya, one of India’s leading carnivore ecologists, about why leopards are so remarkably adaptable, why encounters in human-dominated landscapes are increasing, and what the science actually says about conflict and safety. We unpack common misconceptions, the gaps in policy, and what real coexistence looks like in a country where people and big cats share space every single day.

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Email the Podcast
Arati Kumar-Rao on Instagram
Prem Panicker on X (Twitter)
Prem on Substack
From The Marginlands on Instagram