Beyond Barriers: A Conversation with Conservation Scientist Praneetha Monipi

By Girl Rising Student Ambassador Zainab Bie

This summer, Girl Rising Student Ambassador Zainab Bie attended several major climate gatherings, including IRENA Innovation Week, UNFCCC SB62, and Financing for Development. There, she connected with young leaders from around the world, learning about their perspectives, their experiences in spaces often dominated by men, and their messages to the world.

Among the changemakers she met was Praneetha Monipi, a conservation scientist from India whose experience working with local communities has shaped her ability to advise on smart, effective environmental policy. Her work is grounded in scientific research and a deep belief that conservation must benefit both people and wildlife.

Read on for highlights of their conversation!

Growing Up Among Wild Things

“I grew up around all colors, shapes, sizes, and forms of animals,” Praneetha says. “I’ve been chased, scratched, and pooped on by them, but also felt freedom, vulnerability, and hope with them.”

Raised in small towns and forests across India, she saw firsthand the impacts of tourism, social media, and selfie culture on wildlife. She also saw how some conservation measures excluded communities from their homes and livelihoods, leaving them with nothing to fall back on.

“This disconnect between people and the environment kept growing,” she explains. “Nature shouldn’t be something you pay 2,500 rupees to access for an hour on a weekend. It should be part of everyday life, accessible from where people are.”

Her travels abroad revealed another injustice: the absence of representation. “Researchers from developed countries come to biodiversity hotspots like India, rely on local communities, publish in English, earn accolades, and the people who helped them aren’t even named.”

In India, she adds, conservation work itself lacks financial sustainability. “I worked for years without pay. There’s this idea that if you’re doing good, you shouldn’t take money. But without financial and emotional sustainability, how can we keep going?”

Even so, she’s witnessed the power of people coming together. “That’s the kind of hope I want for our planet -  hope that’s built into the solutions.”

Being a Young Woman in Climate Spaces

“We are at the center of climate change and at the center of transforming movements,” Praneetha says. “But it’s not easy being a woman in a patriarchal society where you’re expected to shrink, whisper, be palatable. You can’t be too much or too little -  never just enough.”

She describes conservation in India as often being a “boys’ club,” where access, credibility, and leadership positions are harder for women to secure. “In a room full of men, I have to fight twice as hard for space and raise my voice ten times louder to be heard. I’ve given ideas that were ignored until a male colleague said the same thing and then he was celebrated.”

The challenges extend to safety in the field. “Imagine being in a remote forest, a grassland, or an urban setting observing wildlife, and having drunk men approach, violate your space, or threaten you with sexual violence. I’ve been followed home, told, ‘You’re just a woman. What do you think you can do?’”

For her, these realities point towards a bigger truth: “Those excluded shouldn’t be the only ones fighting for space. If you say you’re an ally, be proactive. Not being an obstacle isn’t enough -- you have to actively make space. We need intent, not just words.”