Team
Dr. Arjun Srivathsa
Arjun joined WCS–India in 2012 and holds a Master’s degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from NCBS–WCS (2012) and a PhD in conservation ecology of dholes from the University of Florida, USA (2020). He is currently a DST INSPIRE Fellow at NCBS–TIFR and an Affiliate Scientist with WCS–India.
His research encompasses carnivore ecology, human-carnivore interactions, conservation prioritization, and wildlife population monitoring across Asia. Arjun is a member of the IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group, the IUCN Dhole Working Group, and an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Additionally, he is a professional artist and cartoonist, creating conservation-themed artwork for nature education and science communication.
Abraham Pious
Abraham holds a Bachelor's in Commerce from Madras Christian College and gained experience in plastic neutrality at rePurpose Global. Pursuing his passion for wildlife conservation, he interned at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), contributing to studies on leopard ecology, dholes, and human-elephant dynamics in the Western Ghats. He earned a Master's in Ecology from Pondicherry University, focusing on the spatial ecology of dholes. Currently, affiliated with WCS-India, his research explores the coexistence of dholes in human-dominated agroforest landscapes.
Anshita Das
Anshita holds a Master’s in Wildlife Conservation Action and is interested in carnivore population ecology, behavior, and conservation science. Her Master’s dissertation focused on striped hyenas’ dependence on village dumping grounds and people's perspectives on hyenas in these areas. She has interned on projects involving tigers, dholes, and otters. Anshita joined WCS-India’s Dhole project in September 2023 as a Research Associate, focusing on dholes' reliance on anthropogenic food in human-dominated landscapes, social media perceptions of dholes, and their micro-scale space use.
Avantika Deep Sharma
Avantika, a research associate, joined WCS-India in January 2023. She holds a Master’s in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from NCBS and is broadly interested in behavioral ecology. She has worked on urban ecology, studying the breeding and disease ecology of black kites in Delhi, and her Master's dissertation focused on the signaling behavior of Draco dussumieri. Currently, she researches the social behavior of dholes.
Thasmai H. S.
Thasmai is passionate about wildlife conservation, holding a Master's in Wildlife Conservation Action from the Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth. Her interests include carnivore ecology, particularly canids, human-wildlife interactions, and wildlife law enforcement. She has contributed to projects on smooth-coated otters with Wild Otters Research and human-tiger conflict mitigation in the Sundarbans with WTI. Her Master's thesis assessed illegal wildlife trade in Mysore. She joined The Dhole Project last year as an intern for NCBS and later moved to WCS-India.