 It's a great pleasure to be here. I'll take you to a very different world from what he was talking about, to the state of Arunachal Pradesh in the easternmost corner of India, in northeast, which is known for its biodiversity and spectacular forest landscapes. And it also has a very diverse tribal communities, many different tribes, some 26 tribes and 110 sub-tribes, who are mostly, yeah, who are mostly forest dependent. And there's very high forest cover, the human population densities are very low. And most of the forests here are owned by the communities, and they are very much dependent on the forest for resources. And one such resource is wildlife. So hunting is a way of life for most of these tribes. The man on the left, you see, is from the Nishi tribe, and the other person is from the Wancho tribe. They all use a lot of wild animal parts for their headgear and dress. This is the, what you see on top of his beak is a hornbill beak. And there's other tribes that use the tail feathers of the hornbill and many other species in their headgear. Now all of these can look very fascinating, but, you know, the display of wild animal trophies in village households is very common there, and it can be quite a shock for many urban people. And as you know, and many of the things that are there are not just for traditional customs or rituals, but also sold. And these are great hornbill heads, roof-a-snaked hornbill heads being sold in a government emporium for 6,000 rupees. And this is despite the fact that hunting is illegal under Indian law, but in a state like Arunachal because of the cultural context, often these laws cannot be implemented or it's not possible. So leaving aside laws and moral issues, the problem is that with growing populations and with decreasing forest cover, the, you know, this kind of hunting is not sustainable anymore. And sites like these in the forests of Arunachal leave you wondering how long will these magnificent birds survive. This picture is of a dead bird, the roof-a-snaked hornbill, which is a globally endangered species. And this is from the live animal which is taken in Namda fatayga reserve, one of the best areas in the wild for this species globally. This is a great hornbill, which you saw earlier as trophies and heads. This is also sought after by hunters. This is the reedthornbill, which is again hunted. And they're two smaller species, the oriental and the brown hornbill. Now why are hornbills important? Firstly, as you saw, they're very vulnerable targets for hunting. And you know, apart from the existence value that there are another species with a right to exist, they are very important in the ecosystem because they are fruit eaters and they disperse seeds. So they're known as farmers of the forest. And although they are relatively better protected inside the protected areas that the state has, there's a larger amount of forest outside. As I told you, a lot of the forest is community owned. And animals there are vulnerable to much greater hunting pressures and loss of forest. So they need some, you know, we need to look beyond parks to protect them. So I'll just switch gear. I mean, today I want to tell you about a remarkable man from the Nishi community that we drew inspiration from to start a hornbill conservation program in one area where I worked. He helped us find hornbillness initially when he started working with us. And he was a renowned hunter in his community. But one day he told me that he had found an injured great hornbill in the forest and that he walked 10 kilometers to take it to a vet, hoping to get it cured. But then the vet couldn't save it. So he was very sad about it. And he told me, you know, that he couldn't save it. And so I said that, you know, I was touched that a man who had once admitted to me that he had killed 30 great hornbills in his lifetime would have wanted to save this one hornbill. But it was not just Thayum. A change was taking place in the community resident around this area, which is the Parquet Tiger Reserve. And a lot of the other people had also started reducing or stopping hunting. And why did this change happen? I think it's a slow change of heart and a more, a growing empathy with the animals that they had. And they'd also formed a society which was to assist the forest department in protection. And so hunting declined in Parquet and the protection system got strengthened. But what was happening outside was that a lot of the forests outside were getting knocked off or the trees being cut down because of settlements for agriculture and clearing. So, you know, imagine this barren landscape. It was once actually a forest where hornbills used to nest and feed. And we started thinking that this, you know, would be the fate of much of the forest outside if we didn't do something to halt it. So we'd been monitoring nests inside Parquet for about eight years. And, oh, sorry, yeah. We'd been monitoring nests inside Parquet for eight years. And there was a lot of competition for nest sites between hornbills as habitats got destroyed. So we hit upon this, you know, idea which was simple. It was nothing novel. But basically the idea was to bring together two sets of people, urban and local, where the local community protects their, the hornbill nest trees outside the forest, outside their, outside the protected areas. And the urban community contributes by sustaining the program financially or assisting as volunteers. And this is our nest protection team, which is, you know, a lot of them. So it's a three-way partnership between the village community, the forest department, and my organization, the Nature Conservation Foundation. And the nest protectors were all hunters, like Tayoom. And now they ensure that hunting doesn't happen. And they also ensure that the nest trees are, you know, active and the success, you know, that there is a nesting success. So basically this program is, you know, basically, you know, the hornbill chick, the growing hornbill chick, although he doesn't know it, he has three sets of parents. His own hornbill parents who are looking after him, as well as two sets of foster parents. And apart from conserving hornbills, what we are hoping to do is also nurture people's relationships with the wild, for both local people and urban people. Thank you for listening.