Network for Conserving Central India

Formed in 2014 out of the Kanha-Pench Landscape Symposium, the Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI) is a research-practice network dedicated to the Central Indian Highlands. The network’s animating principle is what it calls ‘Jugalbandi’ or the mutual dependence between people’s livelihoods and ecological integrity. It brings together researchers, conservation practitioners, civil society organisations, and local communities, and makes its data, publications, and roundtable resources publicly accessible.

NCCI was founded by Ruth DeFries, professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University and co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School. Her research over 15 years in central India has focused on land use change, food security, forests, and the livelihoods of forest-fringe communities. NCCI’s current programmes run across three tracks. The first, Bagh Chaal (tiger movement), advocates for the safe movement of tigers between corridors, where they often encounter human-dominated regions. The second, Agrobiodiversity and Livelihoods, centres on millets as drought-tolerant, nutritionally dense crops that constitute traditional food practices in the region. Over five rounds of Agrobiodiversity Roundtables in the Kanha landscape, NCCI has been working on seed diversity, traditional agricultural practice, market linkages, and the role of millets in climate resilience. It is currently evaluating NGO interventions to increase millet production and potentially scale operations. The third, the DeFries Bajpai Foundation, offers grants programmes, and funds research aimed at balancing people’s livelihoods with wildlife needs across the landscape. Their Projects Spotlights help render available research and academic papers on central India accessible.