Anant Pande
Anant has a PhD in Wildlife Science from Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. His doctoral research focused on understanding breeding patterns and genetic connectivity between distant breeding populations of climate-dependent Antarctic seabirds. He has previously worked upon a multitude of marine taxa including Antarctic krill, dugongs, pelagic seabirds and baleen whales. He also served as a key team member in developing the National Biodiversity Targets, revision of National Biodiversity Action Plan and reviewing Marine Protected Area network in India.
Anish Andheria
Anish Andheria is the President of the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) that works in and around 160 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries spread across 23 states of India and catalyses path-breaking conservation action. After completing his Ph.D. from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, he went on to pursue Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from the NCBS, Bengaluru. He is a large carnivore biologist with immense knowledge on predator-prey relationships and has conducted and contributed to several carnivore conservation projects across India. He has been awarded the prestigious Carl Zeiss Conservation Award in 2008 and the UAA-Institute of Chemical Technology Distinguished Alumnus Award 2017. He is a Fellow of LEAD and has helped set up Kids for Tigers.
He is a member of several Government Committees including the NTCA; the State Boards of Wildlife of Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir; the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority and Tiger Conservation Steering Committee of Madhya Pradesh. He is part of the Organising Committee of the India Climate Collaborative; a member of the Governing Council of BNHS; a member of the Advisory Committee of BNP Paribas India Foundation and a board member of Satpura Landscape Tiger Partnership (SLTP). A natural communicator, he is one of India's leading motivational speakers, and has introduced thousands of young people to the joys of nature and the rationale for nature conservation.
Jayashree Ratnam
Jayashree Ratnam is at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research where she serves as Program Director of the Wildlife Biology and Conservation Program. She is a community and ecosystems ecologist. She is particularly interested in tropical terrestrial ecosystems and has worked at field sites across Africa and Asia. Her current research investigates the history and functional ecology of Asian savannas, grasslands and forest-grassland mosaics, and the potential responses of these ecosystems to ongoing global change. In the Indian subcontinent where a long history of anthropogenic activity has significantly transformed lands, she is increasingly interested in inter-disciplinary approaches to the conservation of grasslands and savannas that explicitly recognize these as ancient coupled human-natural ecosystems that need to be simultaneously managed for sustainable human use and the conservation of biodiversity and function.
Nandita Hazarika
Nanditha is working as an independent NRM and energy-environment consultant, based out of Assam. Her past work experience of over two decades has focussed on research on energy and environment issues, and community-based initiatives related to wildlife conservation (human-elephant conflict), ecotourism, renewable energy, alternative livelihoods and environment education. She was affiliated with the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington, Seattle. Nandita is also a 2001-02 Hubert Humphrey Fellow alum.
Sanjay Sondhi
Sanjay Sondhi is a Dehradun-based naturalist. An engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Kanpur (1987), the study of natural history has been his passion for more than three decades. His natural history interests include studying, photographing and writing about nature with a special interest in birds, butterflies, moths and amphibians and reptiles. He has authored numerous books and technical papers on amphibians and reptiles, birds, butterflies and moths and other Indian wildlife.
In 2009, he set up TITLI TRUST (http://www.titlitrust.org), a nature conservation non-profit organisation which is devoted to studying and protecting India's lesser-known flora and fauna. Titli Trust’s primary focus is conservation research and action, conservation education and outreach, community-based nature tourism and mitigating human-wildlife conflict. Most of the trust’s work is in the Himalayas. Sanjay is the Editor of the peer-reviewed citizen-science driven Moths of India website (http://www.mothsofindia.org) and a Co-Editor of the Butterflies of India website (http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org). He is a life member of the Bombay Natural History Society, and a member of Kalpavriksh, an environmental NGO, and a Trustee of Nature Science Initiative (http://www.naturescienceinitiative.org), a nature conservation NGO. He also serves on the Board of Dusty Foot Foundation, another nature conservation NGO. He serves as a Member, IUCN/Species Survival Commission South Asian Invertebrate Specialist Group (2021-2025). He is a Member, State Wildlife Board, Uttarakhand and also serves on the Management Committee of Naina Devi Himalayan Bird Conservation Reserve.