Where Have The Birds Gone

Dr Asad Rahmani  in conversation with Swarna Venkataraman.

Wildlife artist Sangeetha Kadur will share her experience of designing the cover.

"…we have come a long way from the time when a lonely T.C. Jerdon published his first book on Indian birds in 1862. Today, India has hundreds of thousands of birdwatchers, in addition to thousands of conservationists and NGOs, all working to make our country a better, safer place for our feathered denizens." - Dr Asad Rahmani

With 1200 + species, India has long been a land alive with birdsong. But something is changing. Birds are slipping away—lost to vanishing habitats, pesticide use, hunting, and to the hard lines of power cables and dams that redraw the land.

Some absences – like that of the Great Indian Bustard and White-belied Heron - are stark. But others are quieter, easier to miss. Birds once “common”, like drongos and rollers,  no longer gather as they did. Nightjars call less often from the forest’s edge. And the dawn chorus—once a bright, swelling thread stitching night to morning—softens, frays, and fades.

Where have these birds gone? And what does their silence mean for us?

In Where Have the Birds Gone?, these questions unfold through intimate, searching accounts of species we are fast losing—tracing not just their disappearance, but also the story of a land on the brink of its own silent spring

Dr. Asad Rahmani is one of India's most prominent ornithologists, nature conservationists, and environmentalists. He is widely recognized for his extensive work spanning over four decades in protecting endangered bird species and their habitats across India. He is best known for being the longest-serving Director of the historic Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), leading the organization from 1997 to 2015