From undergraduate training in zoology to doctoral research in agro-ecological modelling and a postdoctoral career at IIASA — a trajectory built on rigorous quantitative ecology.
In the croplands of the Gangetic Delta, India, the Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) nests during summer for breeding. Farmers seek to concretise river cliffs to prevent agricultural land loss — but this infrastructure destroys the birds' natural habitat and eliminates their critical role in natural pest control. My research identified where habitat corridors must be preserved during concretisation to maintain the bird population during breeding, integrating climate, soil, insect, and aquatic predictors with birds' nesting, breeding success, and demographic variables as latent and response variables. I used a hybrid combination of process-based and machine-learning models.
Thesis: Ecological mechanism behind the decrease in migratory bird diversity
Supervisor: Prof. Santanu Ray — Department of Zoology, Visva-Bharati University