PAST RESEARCH
Grassland Research, Monitoring and Conservation Project
I led a long-term grassland monitoring project with its inception from my postgraduation dissertation thesis, wherein I initiated a baseline ecological research on the current state of the floodplain grasslands and its associated ungulates, thus generating conservation relevant data. Further, I extended this project with the support of the Wildlife and Habitats division of WWF-India first as a Research Consultant (2021-2022) and then as a Project Officer (2022-2023) working closely with the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve administration.
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Handling the scientific and technical front as the project lead, I helped the forest department officials in developing protocols for the management and monitoring of the threatened floodplain grasslands and its associated herbivores primarily in Dudhwa and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve which together form the Central Terai Landscape in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Majorly, the research work during my tenure in the project involved, assessing the drivers of ungulate space use patterns before and after the annual dry seasons fires which are one of the important management interventions for these grasslands carried out by the forest department. Alongside, this also included developing a scientific experiment based research using different methods of managing grasslands such as fire, cutting, harrowing with the goal to improve the forage quality and overall health of these ecosystems. Under this project, we also initiated population surveys and developing monitoring protocols for swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii) population monitoring across the grassland-wetland habitats of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
Lastly, involving local communities in nature conservation has been an important aspect for mitigating negative human-wildlife interactions. Therefore, this work also involved understanding the resource dependency and knowledge of local communities residing at the peripheries of these protected areas about these grasslands and moist-deciduous forests. The analysis of this research is under process and the results are under review currently.
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A majority of this research work has been communicated to wider scientific community as peer-reviewed scientific publications and a recently published field booklet on grasses of Dudhwa.
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I am an early career researcher working in fields of ecological sciences and conservation research with broad interests in questions pertaining to ecology of wild habitats and distribution dynamics of wild animals over space and time. I also try using and exploring certain ecological aspects from the lens of environment policy and advocacy. My expertise lies majorly in the field of Grassland ecology and its obligate inhabitants.
MASTERS RESEARCH
Grasslands, in general have been the most threatened habitats owing to their conversion into various non-forest related activities. The alluvial floodplain grasslands of the Himalayan foothills popularly known as "Terai" have been severely threatened owing to 80% of the habitats converted to farmlands in last several decades.
Therefore, to sustain long-term conservation of these ecosystems, I conducted a research project focused on developing conservation relevant baselines on alluvial floodplain grasslands and the distribution patterns of the grassland obligate ungulates in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh which harbours the last remaining swathes of these habitats. This involved examining the ecology of these habitats such as their species composition and its drivers, forage quality and how these in turn determine the distribution dynamics of three ungulates namely; the swamp deer, hog deer and spotted deer. The results from this research helped the forest managers in strengthening the monitoring protocols for Grassland management interventions in these protected areas. Alongside, a scientific publication of this research was published recently in the Journal of Zoology, Zoological Society of London.
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Eulophia obtusa, a rare orchid of Dudhwa grasslands.
