Issues relating to biodiversity conservation and the environment have the potential to affect all of us, from climate change to the decline of non-human species. Environment-related policy decisions in India tend to be in the hands of a few, however. A recent study published in the July 2015 issue of Biological Conservation sought to broaden the debate by soliciting and then analysing concerns related to Indian biodiversity management and conservation from a larger slice of the public. The study brought together a team of ecologists, conservationists and social scientists based out of India, the U.K., U.S and the Netherlands, who consolidated a pool of several thousand survey responses into 152 thematically-arranged questions, which could help guide future conservation research directions, policy and public outreach initiatives alike.