“Games are an excellent medium to engage with people and draw their attention to issues that they are surrounded by,” says Bengaluru-based ecologist Priti Bangal, the co-creator of Birds in the City, a board game that attempts to capture the relationship between urbanisation and its effects on bird biodiversity in Bengaluru.
Priti, who has worked with applied game designer Prasad Sandbhor to create this, adds that games also invoke emotions and create scenarios that replicate real life. “They give people an opportunity to reflect,” she says. “All of these reasons make games an excellent medium for people to engage with conservation and nature-related issues,” believes Priti, who currently works as a programme coordinator with the Education and Public Engagement programme at the Nature Conservation Foundation. “And yes, they are fun.”
