'My PhD is on elephant excreta. So?'

Research topics get quirkier but students say they are serious

Young people are increasingly trashing the staid and the serious and deciding on fresh, if sometimes bizarre, PhD subjects.

"PhDs are no longer awarded on merit these days caste, money, religion and muscle power are some of the other considerations. Earlier, getting a PhD was really difficult but now it's become so easy that people end up giving nonsense," said M S Thimappa, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University.

Something new

But some students disagree. "We can't be doing the same old PhDs. There are so many things out there that need to be known. I'm doing a PhD onu00a0 crickets because it has always fascinated me and it's such a wonderful subject for research," said Natasha M, a student at the Indian Institute of Science.

"Through my research, I've unearthed amazing facts about crickets. They have finicky mating behaviour that appears to be the driving force behind the speedy speciation of the Laupala cricket," she said.

Roshan V Kumar, a 32-year-old scientist who did his PhD on elephant excreta doesn't think his subject weird at all. "I wanted to do something that would bring me close to nature. I can find out an elephant's health status through its excreta. There is nothing funny or quirky about it, we are just doing research on an unusual subject," he said.

There's Roop Kumar who's studying the dove as a symbol of peace. "People have always said the dove symbolised peace but I wanted to verify if it really does. So far, I've found that pigeons, not doves, are perfect symbols of peace."

"If you think this is quirky, what do you have to say about this person I know who is doing a PhD on Mangalore University," asks Roop.