Abraham Pious
Abraham holds a Bachelor's in Commerce from Madras Christian College and gained professional experience at rePurpose Global, revolving around plastic neutrality. Later, to pursue his passion for wildlife conservation, he interned at the Nature Conservation Foundation(NCF) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) on several short stints, where he contributed to leopard ecology studies, the long-term population assessment of Asiatic wild dogs(dholes), and human-elephant dynamics in the Western Ghats. Building on this foundation, he pursued a Master's in Ecology at Pondicherry University, focusing on the spatial ecology of dholes for his thesis. Since then, he has been affiliated with WCS-India. His ongoing research delves into the nuanced mechanisms enabling the coexistence of dholes in human-dominated agroforest landscapes.
Anshita Das
Anshita holds a Master’s of Science degree in Wildlife Conservation Action. She is broadly interested in carnivore population ecology, behaviour and conservation science. Her Master’s dissertation work involved looking at the dependence of striped hyenas on anthropogenic food subsidies, focusing on village dumping grounds. She also studied people’s perspective towards hyenas using human-dominated landscapes such as village dumping grounds. Previously, she has interned in projects on tigers, dholes and otters, working on various ecological aspects. Anshita joined WCS-India’s Dhole project in September 2023 as a Research associate. Her work currently focuses on looking at the dependence of dholes on anthropogenic food subsidies in a human-dominated landscape and understanding the social media perception of people towards dholes. She is also part of a project to understand the space use of dholes at a micro-scale.
Dr. Arjun Srivathsa
Arjun joined WCS–India in 2012. He obtained his Master of Science degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from the graduate program offered by NCBS–WCS in 2012. He obtained his PhD from the University of Florida, USA in 2020. His doctoral research focused on conservation ecology of dholes. He is currently a DST INSPIRE Fellow at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS–TIFR) and an Affiliate Scientist with WCS–India.
Arjun’s past and on-going collaborative projects include studies of carnivore ecology, applied conservation research, human-carnivore interactions, country- and region-scale conservation prioritizations, and methodological approaches to wildlife population monitoring across multiple landscapes in Asia. He is a member of the IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group, the IUCN Dhole Working Group and an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences. He is also a professional artist and cartoonist, specializing in creating conservation-themed artwork for nature education and science communication.
Avantika Deep Sharma
Avantika works as a research associate and joined WCS- I in January 2023. She obtained her Master of Science degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from NCBS. She is broadly interested in behavioural ecology. Previously she has been part of an urban ecology project looking at the breeding and disease ecology of black kites in Delhi. Her master’s dissertation work involved looking at the signalling behaviour of Draco dussumieri and the role of signals in female social interactions. Taking her research interest forward her current work focuses on the social behaviour of dholes.
Thasmai H. S.
Thasmai is deeply passionate about wildlife conservation. She holds a Master's degree in Wildlife Conservation Action from the Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth. Her interest lies in carnivore ecology, with a keen focus on canid species. She is also interested in human-wildlife interactions and wildlife law enforcement. She has previously contributed to conservation projects such as the ecological monitoring of smooth-coated otters by Wild Otters Research and the human-tiger conflict mitigation project in Sundarbans by WTI. For her master's thesis, she looked into the assessment of the illegal wildlife trade in Mysore. She joined The Dhole Project last year as an intern for NCBS, later shifting to WCS-India.