India, March 28 -- Delighted cackles broke out just a stone's throw from the quaking Siswan-Baddi highway, accompanied by her theatrics. Shielded by high walls and trees, above the cackler on a Semul tree were black drongos chipping in with merry chirps. A barking deer's alarm call sounded in the jungle below. Leopard? As twilight advanced by a star and a crescent moon, the nightjars sang paeans to the demise of daylight. On the impassive wooden door of the lady's loo, a huntsman spider (as large as a human palm and which does not weave webs to catch prey) swung on frequent movement.

The cackler was Jennifer Nandi, India's only professional lady nature guide to the remote outbacks of the North-east, Ladakh's Snow leopard cliffs, Kashmir,...