BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS
Varghese, A., M.A. Oommen, M.M. Paul, and S. Nath (eds.). 2023. Conservation through Sustainable Use: Lessons from India. Routledge India.
Adams, M.A., M.A. Oommen, and A. Sridhar (eds.). 2018. Contested cultures: knowing, using and conserving the wild. Seminar Magazine, February 2018.
Oommen, M.A. 2017. Understanding conservation challenges: investigating conflict in a forest-agriculture fringe in southern India using multidisciplinary approaches. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Technology, Sydney.
Sridhar, A. and M.A. Oommen. 2014. Representing Knowledge: LEK and Natural Resource Governance in India. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Dakshin Foundation. 192 pages.
Bawa, K. S., R. Primack and M. A. Oommen. 2011. Conservation Biology: A Primer for South Asia (book). Universities Press.
JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Oommen, M.A. and K. Morrison. In prep. Famines, floods and flagships: historical and contemporary identities of Central Travancore's eastern forest frontier. (Mahesh Rangarajan and Arupjyoti Saikia eds.).
Gaynor, A. and M.A. Oommen. In prep. Oral history and our planetary future. Bloomsbury Handbook of Oral History (Alexander Freund, Erin Jesse and Alistair Thomson eds.).
Oommen, M.A. In prep. A pig's breakfast? Conservation as a watershed for (wild boar) hunting in Kerala. What is Hunting ? Anthropological Perspectives on (Pig) Hunting. (Ludek Broz, Paul Kiel, Thorsten Gierser, Erica von Essen eds.).
Oommen, M.A. In prep. Conversations with communities of fate: understanding vulnerability and resistance to conservation among proximate migrants of the Travancore famine. In, 'The "Post-Kerala Model" and Challenges of the Twenty-First Century'/ Kerala and the World Economy Conference (J. Devika and V.J. Varghese, eds.), Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.
Oommen, M.A. In prep. Catfights and crocodile tears: conflict, charismatic species and nature professionals in India's conservation history. In 'Protect and Destroy. Governing Nature in the Tropics’ Guillaume Blanc et al. (eds.).
Oommen, M.A. Forthcoming. Conflict, coexistence and conservation: cultural and material entanglements between people and pigs in India. In, Nature's Present, Mahesh Rangarajan et al. eds. Universities Press.
Goodall, H., M. Mondal, and M.A. Oommen. 2023. Ethics, justice and environmental histories: case studies from India and Australia. In, 'The Routledge Handbook of Environmental History' (E. O'Gorman, M. Carey, S. Swart and W. San Martin eds.), Chapter 1, pp. 17-36, New York: Routledge.
Oommen, M.A. 2023. The pig and the turtle: an ecological reading of ritual and taboo from ethnographic accounts on Andamanese hunter-gatherers. In, 'Conservation through Sustainable Use: Lessons from India.' Varghese, A. et al. (eds.), Chapter 7, Routledge India.
Assaga, F. et al. and M.A. Oommen. 2023. The role of social vulnerability in improving interventions for neglected zoonotic diseases: the example of Kyasanur Forest Disease in India. PLoS Global Public Health doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000758
Oommen, M.A. 2022. Combats de fauves et larmes de crocodiles: Conflits, espèces charismatiques et professionnels de la nature en Inde. Dans, ‘Protéger et Détruire. Gouverner la Nature sous les Tropiques’ Guillaume Blanc et al. (eds.) Chapitre 12, 325-350. CNRS Éditions (France).
Oommen, M.A. and K. Shanker. 2021. Signals from the hunt: widening the spectrum on male pursuits of dangerous animals. Journal of Anthropological Research 7(7)3, Fall, 2021. doi.org/10.1086/715404
Oommen, M.A. 2021. Beasts in the garden: human-wildlife coexistence in India's past and present. Frontiers in Conservation Science. doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2021.703432
Shanker, K. and M.A. Oommen. 2021. The authoritarian biologist reloaded and deep ecology redux: conservation imperialism and the control of knowledge, money, and space. In, 'A Functioning Anarchy? Essays for Ramachandra Guha', eds. Srinath Raghavan and Nandini Sundar. Pp. 37-54, Penguin Random House.
Oommen, M.A. 2021. Colonial pig-sticking, imperial agendas and natural history in the Indian subcontinent. The Historical Journal 64(3): 626-649. doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X20000308
Rudd, L. et al. and M.A. Oommen. 2021. Overcoming racism in the twin spheres of conservation science and practice. Proceedings of the Royal Society B doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2021.1871
Assaga, F. et al. and M.A. Oommen. 2021. Operationalising the “One Health” approach in India: facilitators of and barriers to effective cross-sector convergence for zoonoses prevention and control. BMC Public Health doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11545-7
Assaga, F. et al. and M.A. Oommen. 2021. ‘None of my ancestors ever discussed this disease before!’ How disease information shapes adaptive capacity of marginalised rural populations in India. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009265
Shanker, K. and M.A. Oommen. 2020. India's strategies for conservation and sustainability. In, 'India's Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order (Kotasthane, P., A. Kanisetti, N. Pai eds.) Takshashila Institution Press, 336 pages.
Purse, B. et al. and M.A. Oommen. 2020. Predicting disease risk areas through co-production of spatial models: the example of Kyasanur Forest Disease in India’s forest landscapes. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 17(4): e0008179.
Oommen, M.A., R. Cooney, M. Ramesh, M. Archer, D. Brockington, B. Buscher, R. Fletcher, D.J.D. Natusch, A.T. Vanak, G. Webb and K. Shanker. 2019. The fatal flaws of compassionate conservation. Conservation Biology 33(4): 784-787.
Oommen, M.A. 2019. The elephant in the room: histories of place, memory and conflict with wildlife along a southern Indian forest fringe. Environment and History 25: 269-300.
Oommen, M.A. and M. Ramesh. 2019. Tides of change in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Ecology, Economy and Society 2(1): 145-149.
Oommen, M.A. 2017. Famine and elephants: remembering place-making along a southern Indian forest fringe. In: 'Telling Environmental Histories: Intersections of Memory, Narrative and Environment' (K. Holmes and H. Goodall, eds.), Palgrave Studies in World Environmental History. Palgrave Macmillan.
Shanker, K., M.A. Oommen and N.D. Rai. 2017. Changing natures: a democratic and dynamic approach to biodiversity conservation. In: Alternative Futures: India Unshackled. (Eds. A. Kothari et al.).
Jaini, M., S. Advani, K. Shanker, M.A. Oommen, N. Namboothri. 2017. History, culture, infrastructure and export markets shape fisheries and reef accessibility in India's contrasting oceanic islands. Environmental Conservation 45(1): 41-48.
Oommen, M. A. 2012. Treeshrews of south Asia. In: Mammals of South Asia (Eds. A.J.T Johnsingh and N. Manjrekar). Universities Press & Orient Longman.
Oommen, M. A. and K. Shanker. 2010. Shrewd alliances: Context dependant foraging associations between treeshrews, greater racket-tailed drongos and sparrowhawks on Great Nicobar Island. Biology Letters 6(3):304-307.
Oommen, M. A. and K. Shanker. 2008. Ecology and behaviour of an endemic treeshrew (Tupaia nicobarica Zelebor, 1869) on Great Nicobar Island, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 105(1):55-63.
Oommen, M. A. and K. Shanker. 2005. Regional species richness patterns emerge from multiple local scale mechanisms in Himalayan plants. Ecology 86:3039–3047.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Oommen, M.A. 2024. Oommen on Schleifer, 'Global Shifts: Business, Politics, and Deforestation in a Changing World Economy'. available at: https://networks.h-net.org/group/reviews/20023239/oommen-schleifer-global-shifts-business-politics-and-deforestation-changing
Oommen, M.A., R. Whitaker, N. Whitaker, M. Ramesh, M. Ramesh, M. Chandi, G. Webb, S. Pooley, K. Shanker. 2021. State of knowledge and best practices for managing conflict with saltwater crocodiles: potential pathways for India, with special reference to the Andaman islands. Working paper. Madras Crocodile Bank Trust & Dakshin Foundation.
Oommen, M.A. 2018. Endangered enemies: culture, history and human-wildlife conflict. White Horse Press Blog, available at https://whitehorsepress.blog/2018/04/10/endangered-enemies-culture-history-and-human-wildlife-conflict/
Oommen, M.A. 2018. Book review. Jairam Ramesh. Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature. History and Sociology of South Asia 12(1): 1-4.
Oommen, M.A. 2018. Book review. Madhu Ramnath. Woodsmoke and Leaf cups: Autobiographical Footnotes on the Anthropology of the Durwa. Seminar, February 2018.
Oommen, M.A. 2017. Friction along the fringe. Seminar Special Issue: Nature's Present: Dilemmas, Conflicts, Opportunities (M. Rangarajan et al. Eds).
Oommen, M.A. and A. Sridhar. 2014. A place for knowledge: tracing natural resource governance from the late colonial to contemporary India. In, Representing Knowledge: LEK and Natural Resource Governance in India. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Dakshin Foundation. 192 pages.
Oommen, M.A. and M. Adams (eds.) 2013. Special Issue on Indigenous Knowledge, Current Conservation 7(1):32-35.
Advani, S. et al. and M. A. Oommen. 2013. Marine Fisheries in the Andaman Islands: An Account of their Emergence and Transformation. Dakshin Foundation, Bangalore and Andaman Nicobar Environment Team, Port Blair.
Advani, S. et al. and M. A. Oommen. 2012. Taking it from the top: Managing apex predator fisheries in India. Position paper for CBD-COP 11. Dakshin Foundation, Bengaluru and Foundation for Ecological Security, Anand.
Oommen, M.A. 2011. Balancing human needs and ecological function in forest fringe and modified landscapes of the southern Western Ghats. Funding support from CEPF-ATREE Western Ghats Small Grants Programme.
Oommen, M. A. 1996. Biodiversity and sustainability of the Upper Beas Basin, Kullu District, Himachal Pradesh – M.A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University.
POPULAR ARTICLES
'The Last Island: a window to North Sentinel' - The Tribune, 2023
'Before we blame the forest-dwellers...' - The Hindu, 2020 (with Kartik Shanker)
'Engaging communities in resource monitoring: The political ecology of science as the language of power' - Radicalecological democarcy.org, 2018
'Hunting for solutions: on trophy hunting' – The Hindu, 2017 (with Kartik Shanker)
'Human-wildlife conflict: the new wildlife action plan is an inclusive start to a long journey' – The Hindustan Times, 2017
'Islands in Peril: Develop and Perish? Great Nicobar Island' - The Hindu, 2012
'Shrewd Alliances' – Sanctuary Asia, 2010
'Mountain Men' – Current Conservation, 2009
'Mathe Budda' – Current Conservation, 2009
'Nicobars' - The edge of the world', Sanctuary Asia, 2003
SEMINARS
Pigs, turtles and crocodiles: bridging ecology and anthropology in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Au seuil du changement: Les îles Andaman et Nicobar entre spéciation et dissémination. Amphithéâtre de paléontologie, Jardin des Plantes, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 2 rue Buffon, Paris 5. 30 November 2023.
The great unequaliser: conservation burdens on the developing world. Interdisciplinary dialogue: IRI THESys. Where is the unequal? Unboxing socio-ecological inequalities: a dialogue from conservation, water and energy research, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin. 2nd June 2023 (online).
Catfights and crocodile tears: conflict, charismatic species and nature professionals in India's conservation history. Symposium on, ‘Protéger et Détruire. Gouverner la Nature sous les Tropiques’. 7th to 9th December 2022, College des Bernardins, Paris, France.
Status, power and marginalisation in the dynamics of pig hunting in India. Workshop on: What is hunting? Anthropological perspectives on (pig) hunting. 27th to 30th November 2022, Zámek Třešť, Czech Republic.
Harking back to the Pleistocene: Can insights from hunter-gatherer lifestyles inform the energy crises and ecological challenges? Carbon Summer School, Bangalore Science Gallery & National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, 24th June 2022.
Conversations with communities of fate: understanding vulnerability and resistance to conservation among proximate migrants of the Travancore famine. Kerala and the World Economy Conference, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, 22nd to 25th February 2022.
Elephants and people: place memory and conflict along a southern Indian forest fringe. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. 17 December 2019.
Circumventing the wild boar: human entanglements with an obligate opportunist AAS in Asia, New Delhi, 5-8 July 2018.
Tracing conflict: integrating interdisciplinary understandings to inform human-wildlife conflict. Opportunities and Challenges: Symposium on Environment, Flame University, Pune, 15 March 2018.
Fear and hunger on the forest fringe: the long reach of Travancore's famine. Workshop on Famine Stories and Survival Legends: Legacies to the following generations. Third CMPOT Workshop, Uppsala University, Sweden, 28th September - 1st October 2017.
Simplifying predictions of species-habitat relationships for diverse tropical hotspots: a case study from India. The Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, 27 June - 5th July 2016.
The elephant in the room: settler memories of famine and wildlife conflict underlie resistance to conservation in a southern Indian forest fringe, 2016 Oral History Association Annual Meeting, October 12-16, Long Beach, California.
Exploring multidisciplinary possibilities in understanding human-wildlife conflict along a forest-agriculture fringe in the Western Ghats hotspot in southern India, 27th International Congress for Conservation Biology, Montpellier, 2-6 August 2015.
Linking historical contexts with conservation: stakeholder engagements with place in a forest fringe landscape in the Western Ghats mountains of southern India. International Congress of Historical Geographers, Royal Geographic Society, London, 5-10 July, 2015.
The persistence of memory: understanding stakeholder links to place, experience and conservation conflict along a southern Indian forest fringe. Invited talk, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 22nd May 2015.
Unequal burdens: Environmental justice in settler landscapes along southern Kerala's forest fringe. Invited talk at, 'Interrogating Environmental Justice' Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the World's Worst Industrial Disaster, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Centre for Cosmopolitan Civil Societies, UTS, Sydney, November 10 & 11, 2014.