Research Projects
The team – Scientists & Researchers
Dr. P. Gowri Shankar
Founder-Trustee
A wildlife biologist working on king cobras for close to two decades. He obtained his doctorate from Odisha Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanjadeo University, India and was also an exchange student with the Uppsala University, Sweden. A pioneer in radio telemetry study on king cobras. He is a TEDFellow 2020, a TED and TEDx speaker and has been featured in several wildlife documentaries done by leading channels like the National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet and BBC. He has conducted long-term studies on endangered and charismatic reptiles and has strongholds on research in both in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategies, including captive breeding. He was awarded ‘Herpetologist of the Year 2015’ by the Swedish Herpetological Society. He has authored and co-authored scientific papers on king cobras, other herpetological topics, and book reviews.
Dr. S. R. Ganesh
Director of Research
Dr. S.R.GANESH earned a Doctorate specialising in Wildlife Biology from the Univ. of Madras, Tamil Nadu and then completed a Guest Post-Doc in Andhra Pradesh Forest Dept. and is now a recognsied Ph.D. supervisor for herpetological studies. With nearly 25 years of field experience, he has over 125 research publications including some 20 new species descriptions to his credit. He also serves in the editorial / reviewer board of over 20 reputed scientific journals from both India and abroad. His chief interests lie in the field of systematic herpetology, wherein he documents lesser-explored biomes, refining species characterizations and mapping current distribution patterns of southern India’s herpetofauna. This is achieved from fieldwork done for collecting base-line data, examining already-existing voucher specimens in museums for taxonomic researches and carrying out mapping studies and analyses in GIS-based approaches.
Priyanka Swamy
Research Project Lead
Ph.D. Scholar
She has a strong interest in understanding the diversity and behavior of reptiles and amphibians, particularly through the use of molecular tools and DNA sequence data. Her research at the Indian Institute of Science has contributed to the description of new amphibian and reptile species and has actively participated in a project on the phylogeography and population genetics of the king cobra in India. Her current focus is on autecological studies using radio telemetry and fixed videography on snake models. Additionally, she has experience in conducting reptile awareness programs.
Research Affiliates
Dr. Sanjukta Chakravorti
Research affilate Kalinga Foundation
A geologist and palaeobiologist, with a PhD from the Geological Studies Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, India. Her research focuses on Gondwanan Geology and Triassic temnospondyl amphibians from India. She is currently wrapping up her post-doctoral research at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (German: Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart) in Germany. She also actively works on palaeoecology and palaeobiology of marine vertebrates in India. She has extensively revised maps of the Early, Middle and Late Triassic Gondwana Formations of all the four major Gondwana Basins in India. She has academic publications in refereed journals like Current Science, Peer J and Journal of Iberian Geology, Annales de Paléontologie and Indian Journal of Geosciences to name a few. During her PhD, Chakravorti has been a visiting scientist studying vertebrate fossils at Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands (2016), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris (2017), University of Opole, Poland and Institute of Palaeobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences (2018) and Department of Earth Science, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Caparica, Portugal (2018). She has active collaborations with University of Opole, Poland, University of Bonn, Germany; Institut de Catala, Barcelona, Spain, University of California-Riverside, United States and Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – Departamento de Ecologia e Evolução, Brazil;Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. She is a part of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontology (EAVP) in 2018 She convened the first keynote outreach programme organised in January 2020 at the Indian Statistical Institute, in Bengalis language, titled “Fossils of Bengal”.
Dr. A.P. Ranjith,
Research affilate Kalinga Foundation
Expertise – Entomology; systematics, taxonomy, phylogeography and phylogenetics of insects Graduated from: University of Calicut, Kerala, India Thesis: Diversity and abundance of hymenopteran parasitoids and pests of rice with special reference to farming practices in Kerala, supported by Kerala Biodiversity Board Doctoral Fellowship award. Post-Doc. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Fellow: Royal Entomological Society, UK; Intl. Society of Hymenopterists, Canada, The Systematics Association, UK, Malabar Natural History Society, Kerala, India. Expert on Braconid, Ichneumonid, Bethylid, and Hymenopteran insects; insect pests – plant galls and parasitoids International Museum Visits: Natural History Museum London, UK; University of Adelaide, Australia, Queenslad Museum Australia, Korean National Arboretum; Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden. Active collaborations in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Netherlands, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Sweden and Thailand. Research Projects: Studies on edible insect resources for enhancing livelihood opportunities in Manipur, Northeast India. Siang Valley Expedition, Northeast India (NGC). Biosystematic studies on parasitic Hymenoptera of Western Ghats and Eastern Himalaya. 61 papers, 9 new genera and 79 new species described. Reviewer: Annales de a Societe Entomologique de France, Memoirs du Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Zootaxa, Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology, Zookeys, Entomological News, Biharean Biologist, American Museum of Nat. Hist. Publ. Series, Acacemia Journal of Biology, Tropical Natural History, Journal of Hymenopteran Research, Oriental Insects, Journal of Threatened Taxa.
Dr. S.P. Vijayakumar,
Research affilate Kalinga Foundation
Expertise – biogeography, evolutionary biology, species-delimitation and integrative taxonomy; batrachology, island biology Graduated from: Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Thesis: Insights into an evolutionary radiation: causes and consequences of diversification in the Western Ghats bush frogs. Post Docs: Oklahoma State University and George Washington University, USA. Described many new species of frogs, snakes and lizards from many parts of India. Studied the herpetofauna of the Western Himalayas, Nicobar Islands, and Western Ghats in India. Designed and coordinated the largest herpetological survey in the Western Ghats, in terms of duration and area. A long-term (7 years), high-budget (98 lakhs) project that resulted in tremendous novel deliverables (many new taxa of herpetofauna discovered and described). New genera such as Astrobatrachus (frog), Proahaetulla (snake), Monilesautus, and Microauris (lizards) were described. Contributed to the setting up of a natural history research collection, a repository of preserved voucher specimens of herpetofauna across the Western Ghats in IISc Bangalore, India. Has conducted a pioneering study on the island herpetofauna in the Nicobar archipelago in India. Published in landmark journals like Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society B, Peer J, Molecular Phylogenetics et Evolution, Ecology & Evolution, Plos One, Zootaxa, Russian Journal of Herpetology, Current Science, Journal of Genetics and Hamadryad. Studied the ecological assemblage and the roadkill mortality of herpetofauna in the Southern Western Ghats, India.
Research Collaborators
Dr. Colin Strine
Assistant Professor Department of Natural Sciences Dickinson State University, USA
He has extensive experience in the field of reptile spatial ecology, including completing a PhD on Green Pit Viper (Trimeresurus) Spatial Ecology, co-founding a conservation and education team, and establishing the first king cobra (Ophiophagus) spatial ecology project in Thailand, apart from other snakes like cobras (Naja), kraits (Bungarus) and cat snakes (Boiga). He has also supervised graduate students and co-authored many international peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Strine is a member of professional organizations such as the Society for Conservation Biology and the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation. He has command and expertise in radio telemetry and spatial ecology techniques.
Dr. Kartik Shanker
Associate Professor Indian Inst. of Science, Bengaluru, India
He is interested in the distribution of diversity at various levels of organisation, from genes to ecosystems, and at various scales from local communities to macro-ecological regional scales. He and his team work in terrestrial habitats mainly in the Western Ghats, but extending to the other parts of India including the Eastern Ghats and Northeast India. He also works on coastal and marine systems, both along the mainland coast as well as the offshore islands. His model systems include a range of small vertebrates in forest systems and coastal and marine fauna. He combines field ecology, phylogenetic information and ecological modelling to understand evolutionary and biogeography patterns, and assist conservation prioritisation.
Dr. Wolfgang Wuster
Asst. Professor Univ. of Bangor, UK
A professor researching on venomous snakes, their systematics and toxinology for nearly three decades. A pioneer on the elapid and viperid taxonomy, specialising on medically important snakes such as cobras (Naja), kraits (Bungarus), king cobras (Ophiophagus), Vipers (Daboia, Echis, Bitis) to name a few. His research underpins the importance of taxonomic clarity and stability of medically important snakes in addressing and resolving the world’s human snakebite crisis – bridging both their systematics and toxinology. A prolific writer, who has authored nearly 200 scientific publications on the subject.
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