Bhoj K. Acharya completed PhD from Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, India. Currently he is a faculty in the Department of Zoology at Sikkim University (A Central University), Gangtok, India. He is undertaking research on ecology and biogeography of various taxonomic groups in the Eastern Himalaya for the past fifteen years. His research interests are to understand the large-scale ecological patterns with particular emphasis on species richness, abundance and distribution patterns along ecological gradients, and to understand application of indigenous knowledge in monitoring and conservation of biodiversity in the Himalayan region, ecology and molecular phylogeny of butterflies. He has extensively worked in difficult terrain and harsh climatic conditions of the Eastern Himalaya spanning tropical to trans-Himalayan zones. He has been actively involved in creating awareness on biodiversity conservation issues in the Sikkim Himalaya. Current research focuses on the assessment of potentiality of the human modified landscapes in conservation of biodiversity with special focus on birds and butterflies in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya in the Eastern Himalaya
Dr Basundhara Chettri completed her PhD from Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore. Her research focuses on the ecology and conservation of herpetofauna in the Eastern Himalayas. Currently, she is trying to delineate the cryptic diversity of amphibians and reptiles through integrative approach. She is also interested to work with community for the conservation of biodiversity and traditional knowledge.
Dr.Laxuman Sharma, has a PhD in Agriculture and Food Engineering Department from IIT, Kharagpur. His main research interests are Horticultre, Organic agriculture, Plant physiology, Medicinal Plants.
Jins completed his PhD from Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, India. For his doctoral research, he worked on reptile communities of Agasthyamalai Hills in the Southern Western Ghats of India with emphasis on distribution along elevational gradient. His research interests include community ecology, herpetology, taxonomy and landscape-level patterns in biodiversity. He is also interested in studying the impact of climate change on faunal components using GIS modeling approaches. Currently, in this project he is exploring the faunal diversity patterns and underlying factors in socio-ecological landscapes of Sikkim-Himalaya.
Ms. Ananta Rai originally hails from Namchi, South Sikkim. She completed M.Sc in Biotechnology from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur, Andra Pradesh. She is currently a Ph.D. Scholar from the Department of Zoology, Sikkim University. Her work mainly focuses on Ecology, distribution and phylogeny of Reptiles. Her other area of interests is Molecular Biology and Taxonomy.
Sailendra Dewan is from Kurseong, Darjeeling West Bengal. He completed BSc in Zoology from St. Joseph College Darjeeling. He holds MSc degree in Zoology with specialization in Ecology, Environment, and Wildlife form Sikkim University. He is currently pursuing Ph.D. course from the Department of Zoology Sikkim. His subject of research is studying butterfly diversity along the elevation gradient in Sikkim-Himalayan landscape. He is also working in understanding phylogeny and evolution of butterflies. In this project, he is working to study butterfly diversity and community structure in Socio-ecological landscapes of Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalayas.
Bishal Thakuri is from Runikhata in the Chirang district of Assam. He completed his B.Sc. Zoology from Kokrajhar Govt. College, Assam and holds M.Sc. degree in Zoology with specialization in Ecology, Biodiversity and Wildlife Biology from Sikkim University. Presently, He is pursuing Ph.D. from the department of Zoology, Sikkim University. His research work focuses primarily on Ornithology and Landscape Ecology. In the project, He is working as a JRF on the bird diversity and community structure in Socio-ecological landscapes of Darjeeling-Sikkim, Himalaya.
Trained as a wildlife biologist/ecologist Dr. Sarala Khaling, has worked for the past 15+ years in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services at a landscape level. Her interests are looking at drivers of change in human modified landscapes and it impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem, services in Northeast India and North Bengal.
Sunita Pradhan is a wildlife biologist and has been working in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya for over 15 years. She has worked in various issues and projects ranging from the ecology of the Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens, and its ex-situ conservation, translocation and radio tracking. Her involvement in conservation also extends into understanding coexistence, persistence and conservation of species and ecosystems in the heterogeneous socio-ecological landscapes of the region.
With a background in computer science and mathematics and over 5 years of experience working on citizen science and biodiversity documentation, Rohit has extensive experience designing, developing, managing and analysis of project databases for a wide range of projects in the region. He has also worked on GIS platforms to visualize and analyze biodiversity information. In this project he will be responsible for the Mountain Biodiversity Database and Information System component.
Vikram has a Masters degree in Forestry and has been associated with ATREE for more than five years where he has been involved in projects concerning Ecosystem Services and Human wellbeing, Human Wildlife Conflicts in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas. Apart from Ecosystem services he is also interested in developing understanding, documenting and converging on various issues related to Ecosystem Disservices.
Aditya Pradhan is from Darjeeling. He holds a Master’s degree in Zoology with specialization in Environmental Biology from Darjeeling Government College, University of North Bengal. He is currently working as a Junior Project Fellow on Ecosystem Services and Vegetation component in this project. He is interested in Herpetofauna, Birds, and Butterflies of Eastern Himalayas.
Thangsuanlian Naulak has a Masters Degree in Forestry with specialization in Wildlife Management and Eco-development. In this project he is working to document mammalian diversity present in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya landscape using a variety of instruments; Camera trap, Sherman trap, Mist net and Bat detector. His interests include the Eastern Himalaya landscape and Conservation Biology.
Arun is from Darjeeling has and completed his MCA from Sikkim University. He has a keen interest in software and web application development. In this project he will be responisble for taking care of the project database and also citizen science.
