India has a diversity of wildlife, both flora and fauna, spread over the country’s woodlands, mountains, rivers, deserts, and coasts – from snow leopards in the Himalayas to cobras in the steamy rainforests of Karnataka and from Kottigehara dancing frogs in the Western Ghats to killer elephants in Assam. At our Online Talk #ANaturalistsGaze, author Stephen Alter draws from his most recent book, The Cobra's Gaze, and speaks about the way in which our human species observes and interprets nature. Combining stories from science, folklore, mythology and personal experience, he explores a diverse range of wildlife and wild landscapes across the length and breadth of India. About the speaker: Stephen Alter was born in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, where he continues to live and write. He has published 25 books of fiction and non-fiction, many of which focus on Himalayan ecology, wildlife and mountain culture. His honours include a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright award. His memoir, Becoming a Mountain, received the 2015 Kekoo Naoroji Award for Himalayan literature. His fictional account of Jim Corbett’s life In the Jungles of the Night was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, 2017. He was writer-in-residence for ten years at MIT and directed the writing programme at the American University in Cairo. His latest book is The Cobra’s Gaze: Exploring India’s Wild Heritage.