Dr. Saloni Bhatia | Programme Head
Saloni is a conservation anthropologist with interest in understanding the interface between people and wild animals. She has previously studied the drivers of people’s relationship with wild carnivores, the nature of conflict mitigation technologies, media representations of conflicts over wildlife as well as cultural representations of wild animals. She is keen to understand and find ways of enhancing the acceptance for wildlife among people. Her interests include studying conservation interventions and assessing their tangible and intangible impacts, examining the linkages between culture/heritage and conservation as well as evaluating the role of emotions and affect in influencing behaviours and decisions. She works at the intersection of science and practice and strives to incorporate multidisciplinary approaches into her work. She believes in complementing scientific rigour with compassion and inclusivity and has over fifteen years of conservation experience including stakeholder engagement, project management, policy implementation, fund raising, mentoring, as well as academic and non-academic writing.
Preety Sharma | Environmental and Social Safeguards Manager
Preety is a sustainability practitioner with experience in re-imagining processes through design thinking. She uses interdisciplinary practices to bring about ecological and economic benefits to rural and urban communities. She has worked with social enterprises such as Daily Dump, corporations like KPMG, and NGOs like the Nature Conservation Foundation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, and Foundation for Excellence in the fields of conservation enterprise, socio-economic research and community interventions. Previously, she has used design thinking tools such as theory of change, systems design and empathic problem-solving methods to help plan and implement projects that include women's participation in snow leopard conservation, livelihood initiatives for potter communities that impact urban waste management. She has also created business plans for the eradication of invasive species through community involvement. She has developed processes for these projects keeping environmental and social sustainability in mind and has carried out impact assessments for various stakeholders ranging from tribal communities to urban youth. She has also engaged closely with state government policies and provided strategic consultancy for education and skill development sector of the country. Going forward, she hopes to work on long-term and culturally relevant sustainability projects in Nagaland and other indigenous regions in the country.