My research interests lie at the intersection of Animal Behaviour and Community Ecology. During my PhD I combined these interests to answer questions related to species interactions in animal communities. I graduated from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science in March 2020. I studied interactions within mixed-species animal groups, how they influence community composition and importance of some functional links in these groups using mixed-species bird flocks as a model system. Post this, I was a postdoc as a part of a large team setting up long term ecological monitoring in different landscapes across India.

I now continue to engage in  research on mixed-species bird flocks with my students and past collaborators and also find time to continue to work with the bird monitoring community in India.

Formally, I work as a Programme  coordinator with the Education and Public Engagement Programme at Nature Conservation Foundation.

I am also interested in science education, writing and the learning sciences and have pursued my interests in these fields alongside my research over the past few years.

UPDATES

May 2021: The pandemic has been tough, for all of us. The second wave got to friends and family, everyone struggled to stay afloat. As I managed to stay in and help others around me, life went on. The despair all around, and yet normalcy in the work - life (for those of us privileged enough to WFH) was hard to reconcile. We brace for a third wave, but it seems like we are past the worst of the second wave. While we can't let our guard down, hang in there everyone, this will get better. I tell this to myself as much as I say this to everyone out there reading this! Hang in there.

Among the few things I managed to get done during this time, the kind people of Bengaluru Sustainability Forum, offered Prasad Sandbhor and I a small grant to work on another one of our ecology related game ideas. This one is on Urban Ecology and you can read a bit about our project here: https://tinyurl.com/ptcmccdt. Thank you, BSF!
August 2020: I joined the Nature Conservation Foundation as a postdoc on the bird theme of the India - Long Term Ecological Observatories programme. The LTEO programme is based at the Indian Institute of Science with several institutional partners across the country. The bird theme is anchored at NCF, Bangalore. Looking forward to being at NCF and the new work!
May 2020: This month, as we are still getting used to online teaching, interactions and meetings (the zoom fatigue is so real!), I spent time interacting with two groups of people about my PhD research - Grade 8 - 12 students and a Marathi (my native language) audience. Both these audiences were new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed preparing for both talks. I was excited to expand my Marathi vocabulary to speak about my work.
The interaction with school students was facilitated by Kalinga Centre for Rainforest Ecology, Agumbe and the one in Marathi was facilitated by the Maharashtra Pakshi Mitra Mandal. Very grateful for these opportunities.
March 2020: I defended my PhD merely hours before our University went on a complete shutdown. Amid all the chaos and cancellations everywhere, because of the Corona virus outbreak, we went online with virtual attendees and live-streamed. I am officially done (pending-paperwork!).
November 2019: Visited Dai Shizuka's Lab to make progress on our collaborative work at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Very productive time. Thanks for hosting me, Dai. Link to Dai's lab webpage: https://shizukalab.com/
October 2019: Presented some of my PhD dissertation work at the AFO-WOS meeting at Cape May, New Jersey. Great meeting, wonderful and exciting research and people.
August 2019: I graduated from being a PhD student to being a Research Associate at the Centre for Ecological Sciences!