Iyesha Geeth Abbas

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will delve into selected collections from the Archives of National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) including but not limited to Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi (WPSS), R. Prabhakar Papers, R J Ranjit Daniels Papers and Prakash Gole papers, in an attempt to explore interactions between humans and their ecosystems through a range of disciplines that overlap in prescient ways. This project is in collaboration with the Archives at NCBS, Bangalore, Karnataka. The Archives at NCBS is a public centre for the history of science in contemporary India. Over 350,000 processed objects across 50+ collections are available in various forms, ranging from paper-based manuscripts to negatives, photographs, books, fine art, audio recordings, scientific equipment, letters, and field and lab notes. The holdings include the papers of the ornithologist, Ravi Sankaran, and the molecular biologist and co-founder of NCBS, Obaid Siddiqi. Iyesha Geeth Abbas is the Project Coordinator for this project.

Iyesha Geeth Abbas currently works as a curator at the National Film Archive of India. She has a rich experience of research and of leading archival projects across various national and international platforms. Previously, she was part of a three-member cataloguing team headed by film historian Ashish Rajadhyaksha for an intensive three-month cataloguing project at the National Film Archive of India. Iyesha has curated three virtual exhibitions of film posters, lobby cards and photographs (Guns, Knives and Swords: Arms in Bombay Cinema Publicity; Comedy and Play and To See is to Hear: Musical Impressions) for the Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore. Apart from curatorial ventures, Iyesha has been part of numerous conferences and symposiums, such as at The Kumar Shahani Legacy organised by the Shergil-Sundaram Arts Foundation at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU (Dec 2024); and presented a paper titled Archiving Off the Centre: Collaborative Routes at the FIAF Congress Symposium 2024 held at the Thai Film Archive (April 2024). She also has been a recipient of OP Jain Foundation Grant to complete a manuscript (co-authored with Virchand Dharamsey) that comprehensively studies the silent film era (work in progress since 2013) in the Indian subcontinent. (December 2021 - March 2022). Given her dynamic work experience in research and archival practices, Iyesha is best suited to be the Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project of IFA. 

For this Foundation Project, the Project Coordinator will study selected collections from the archives of NCBS, to highlight the rigorous spirit of scientific enquiry, and the profound significance of community, especially the indigenous communities that have nurtured concerns of sustainability through generations. For Iyesha, a seasoned archivist and researcher, a primary glance at the collections - not as separate entities, but as a whole – opens up a new set of relations, of interconnectedness in ideas and the works of several figures featured in the archives. For example, eucalyptus plantation, are linked to declining elephant populations and the pollution of the Chaliyar river in studies by the WPSS, find mention in the writing of Mahasweta Devi on the stripping of the eco-diversity of the Terai region, and the same tree is cited by R J Ranjit Daniels as is the reason for the relocation of birds endemic to the Western Ghats. Keeping this impulse of interconnectedness at the centre of her study, the Project Coordinator intends to explore the collection at the archives of NCBS by studying four instances: (i) ways of interacting with the ecosystem we inhabit, their documentation and discovery, and the indigenous systems of knowledge that support them, (ii) egalitarian ways of transmitting knowledge and (iii) the nature of organised environmental protection and justice. Some of these threads of exploration will be extended into the audio-visual presentations that Iyesha will undertake as part of the Foundation Project. 

The outcomes of the project will be audio-visual presentations, one, which follows the format of a “box of wonders”, of material from the collection which will be grouped under themes or keywords. For example, “writing on birds” could include the referencing of C.V. Raman’s study of the origins of the iridescent colours on a peacock’s tail, Prakash Gole’s photographs of Siberian cranes in Bharatpur, an English nursery rhyme, and the several beautifully written sightings of birds in the several birdwatchers’ newsletters. Another audio-visual presentation/lecture on the power of collaboration as an effective tool of environmental preservation will look into the assimilations and collaborations between various systems of knowledge, such as – scientists, cultivators, and the indigenous communities. It will draw from the activities of past and present generations in organised movements and the affinity and interactions between various disciplines. The Project Coordinator also intends to create an online publication on the above presentations that will highlight the interdisciplinary connections in the collection and the material beauty of each item. In addition to these, Iyesha will organise special screenings as part of public programming, which will include screening of films on forests, their inhabitants and lost/disappearing knowledge systems and will also use archival footage from the Films Division and materials from Swasth Hind to structure these events. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be the digital copy of the pictorial book, archival footage and images, and documentation of the audio visual presentations, film screenings and public programming.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is supported by Tata Trusts.