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Open Sessions
The Open Sessions at IWEC 2026 will feature 64 presentations under ten main themes.
Each presenter will be given 12 minutes to present their work, followed by 3-5 minutes for discussion and Q&A.
OS1: Evolutionary Biology: Linking Genomes, Traits, and Landscapes
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What's up with the Black Tigers?: Evolutionary Dynamics of the Pseudomelanistic Tiger Population | Abhijit Santra | National Centre for Biological Sciences |
| 2 | When morphology misleads: Convergent morphology and species-group polyphyly in the army ant genus Aenictus Shuckard, 1840 | Bikash Sahoo | National Institute of Science Education and Research |
| 3 | Divergent venoms among two closely related co-distributed centipede species, Scolopendra morsitans and S. hardwickei in tropical Asia | Aditi | CSIR-CCMB |
| 4 | An Integrative Landscape Genomics Framework To Disentangle Spatial Evolution | Vivek Premnath Suranse | Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru |
| 5 | Assessing the influence of macrohabitat on the genetic structure in two widespread amphibians of India | Preeti Hebbar | Manipal Academy of Higher Education |
| 6 | The genomic legacy of Asiatic Cheetah from the Indian subcontinent | Kritika M. Garg | Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali |
OS2: Species distribution and landscape ecology
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bridging data gaps in squirrel distribution: Importance of community-collected data | Swati Udayraj | Independant Researcher |
| 2 | Distribution, density and environmental correlates of reptiles on threatened montane rock outcrop in the northern Western Ghats | Vaishnavi Apte | Nature Conservation Foundation |
| 3 | Terrain, Habitat, and Connectivity: A Landscape-Level Analysis of Himalayan Tahr in Western Himalayan Landscape | Jayant Gupta | Amity Institute of Forestry and Wildlife, Amity University Noida |
| 4 | Ecological Dynamics of Himalayan Brown Bears in the Trans-Himalayan Region | Niazul Hassan Khan | Wildlife Institute of India / Wildlife Protection Department, Ladakh |
| 5 | Symphony of Shadows: Decoding Nyctibatrachus Microhabitat Preferences Through Structural Equation Modelling in the Western Ghats | Priyanka Desai | Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research (BVIEER) |
| 6 | Bat fauna of Lakshadweep archipelago: diversity, distribution and roosting ecology | Irfan Mubarak P | Nature Conservation Foundation |
| 7 | Habitat Fluctuations in Bats in the Indian Subcontinent in response to Historical Climate Change | Ratnesh Karjee | Ashoka University |
OS3: Animals in Changing Landscapes
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bird community assembly across a disturbance gradient in a forest-agriculture landscape of Northeast India | Biang La Nam Syiem | Conservation Initiatives |
| 2 | Effects of Shade Management on Bird Communities and Habitat Use in Coffee Agro-Forestry Systems of the Western Ghats | Sanath R M | Nature Conservation Foundation |
| 3 | Fragmented yet vital: Impact of urban green patch size and structure on avian diversity in Pune, India | Vaidehi Mehta | Bharti Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune |
| 4 | Impacts of land use on bird communities in the Western Himalaya: Insights from a two-decade-long monitoring program | Sidharth Srinivasan | Georgia Institute of Technology and Nature Conservation Foundation |
| 5 | Fragmentation and surrounding land use shape bird communities in semi-arid grasslands of eastern Pune, India | Varsha | WII-SACON |
| 6 | Faunal Diversity of Vertebrate Pests in AgroHorticultural Ecosystems of Sub-Montane Punjab | Dr Vinay Singh | Punjab Agricultural University- Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Pathankot |
| 7 | Assessing the Impacts of Landscape Changes on the Demographic History of a Western Ghats Endemic Bird | Rayis T R | Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati |
OS4: Patterns and Processes in Community Ecology
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Living Together by Living Apart: Co-existence in two sympatric lizards | Dimpi A. Patel | Wildlife Institute of India |
| 2 | Canopy gaps as diversity hotspots: Succession of vegetation and crab communities in mangrove canopy gaps of the Andaman Islands, India | Perarivalan | Wildlife Institute of India |
| 3 | Forest Type Shapes the Architecture of Spider-Ant Trophic Networks in Himalayan Forests | Ashirwad Tripathy | Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, Uttarakhand |
| 4 | Assessing five-year tree mortality in a dipterocarp wet evergreen forest of Western Ghats | Drishya KV | French Institute of Pondicherry |
| 5 | Conspecifics depress seedling survival more strongly in wetter forests | Meghna Krishnadas | TIFR National Centre for Biological Sciences |
| 6 | In search of elusive sawfish along the west coast of India | Mayuresh Gangal | Nature Conservation Foundation |
| 7 | Niche partitioning among sympatric macaques in Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary | Dhiraj Kumar Das | Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Tamil Nadu |
OS5: Animal Interactions and Communication
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Social Butterfly: Partner Choice within Mixed-Species Aggregations of Tropical Papilionoidea | Shravani Deoghare | Indian Institute of Science |
| 2 | Reef fish communities show differentiated response in the aftermath of two mass coral mortality events | Radhika Nair | Nature Conservation Foundation |
| 3 | Inhabiting anthropogenic seas: a habitat study of coastal cetaceans of mumbai | Mahi Mankeshwar-Modi | Coastal Conservation Foundation |
| 4 | Social Cohesion and Herd Dynamics of Reintroduced Gaur in Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh | Bhaskar Bhandari | Wildlife Institute of India |
| 5 | Listening to the Night Whistler: Passive Acoustic Monitoring of the Gray Slender Loris in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve | Vandana Kannan | Keystone Foundation |
| 6 | Vocal Behaviour Across Parturition in the Asian Elephant: A Case Study | Seema Lokhandwala | IIT Guwahati |
| 7 | Thoracic Centralization and Abdominal-Mediated Temporal Stability: A Functional Map of the Mecopoda Song CPG | Vivek Dasoju | Ashoka University |
OS6: Animal Behaviour and Physiology
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Changing Diets, Disrupting Guts? Seasonal Dietary Shifts and Gut Microbiome Dynamics in Indian Grey Wolves | Sara Kamat | Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University); Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Information Technology and Biotechnology |
| 2 | The winter behaviour and activity pattern of a non-hibernating, non-migrating small mammal in the Western Himalayas | Chandana M | National Centre for Biological Sciences |
| 3 | Under the Influence: Parasitic Manipulation of Female Rock Agama Behaviour | Aaditya Gupta | Ashoka University |
| 4 | Context-dependent vocal repertoire and functional analysis of palm squirrel vocalisations | Rakesh Muni | IISER Tirupati |
| 5 | Ecological Insights into the Feeding Habits of the Nilgiri Langur | Arjunan N | Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore |
| 6 | Investigating reproductive biology of female mugger crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) by using behaviour and endocrine measures | Brinky Desai | Mahim Pandhi Wildlife Foundation |
OS7: Human-Wildlife interactions and livelihoods
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthropogenic Mortality of Leopards in Agricultural Landscapes of Bijnor, Northern India | Shivam Chauhan | Department of Wildlife Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh |
| 2 | Community Values and Social Norms shape human behaviour toward elephants in shared human-elephant landscapes | Shikhar Srivastava | Ashoka University |
| 3 | Responses of Elephants to Community-Led Deterrents in Bandhavgarh Landscape, Central India | Rajashekhar Niyogi | Wildlife Research and Conservation Society, Pune |
| 4 | Women, Forests, and Leadership: Ecologies of Care and Resilience in the Central Indian Himalayas | Kavya Pandey | Centre for Wildlife Studies |
| 5 | Adopting methodological plurality to understand elephant agency in shaping human-elephant conflict in North Bengal | Akashdeep Roy | Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune |
| 6 | Understanding Negative Human-Wildlife Interactions and How Elephants Act as Facilitators for Sympatric Herbivores to Access Forage Rich Agri-fields | Sahil Das | Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment, Education and Research (BVIEER), Pune |
OS8: Conservation Challenges and Interventions
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | From Release to Establishment: Post-Release Ecology of Indian Grey Hornbills in Gir | Tanisha Dagur | Wildlife Institute of India |
| 2 | Illegal Pangolin Trade in India (2020–2025): Will There Be Light at the End of the Tunnel? | Abhijit Konwar | National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore |
| 3 | Saving Our Bhupathi's Purple Frog: conservation approaches for the critically endangered Nasikabatrachus bhupathi | Suchetana Gupta | Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| 4 | Reviving the Critically endangered Taxa: Triplophysa kashmirensis in Kashmir Himalayas: A Conservation Breeding & Habitat Restoration initiative | Irfan Ahmad | Shere Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology of Kashmir |
| 5 | Altered living conditions: A century in zoos. The case of the Lion-tailed macaque | Nilofer Begum | Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| 6 | Quantifying local extinctions of western hoolock gibbons from Northeast India | Ezra Lawanker Rynjah | Conservation Initiatives |
OS9: Conservation in Shared Landscapes
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Distribution and Conservation Challenges of Jackals and Foxes in Tamil Nadu, India | Shameer T T | Project Nilgiri Tahr |
| 2 | Estimating the cost of wildlife that Indian farmers pay | Milind Gajanan Watve | Independent Researcher |
| 3 | Turning the Tide: Shifting Fisher Behaviour Toward Whale Shark Conservation Along Kerala's Coastline | Jithin Jose | Wildlife Trust of India |
| 4 | Ethno-zoological usage of natural resources by the tribal communities of Meghalaya | Rakesh Ch Saha | Pachhunga University College, Mizoram University |
| 5 | Understanding the hunters: Traditional Hunting Practices and Profiles from Pualreng Wildlife Sanctuary, Mizoram, India | Antarika Paul | Mizoram University |
| 6 | Comparative Population Genomics of Hipposideros Bats: Informing Urgent Conservation Strategies for Endemic Kolar Leaf-nosed Bat | Tanisha Singh | Ashoka University and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) |
| 7 | Integrating breeding site distribution and pre-harvest fire-related mortality risk to guide leopard conservation in agroecosystems of South Gujarat, India | Rohit Chaudhary | Department of Wildlife Sciences, Banda University of Agriculture and Technology |
OS10: Climate, Health, and Conservation
| No. | Talk title | Presenting author | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Climate change mitigation in rangelands: Examining efficacy of afforestation in Indian grasslands for carbon sequestration | Jobin Varughese | National Centre for Biological Sciences / Centre for Pastoralism |
| 2 | Climate change or afforestation? Attributing five decades of tree cover expansion in the Himalaya | Niranjan Balagopal | Ashoka University |
| 3 | Arid Frontiers: Why Biogeography Matters for Climate-Vulnerable Wildlife | Manasi Mukherjee | Independent Researcher |
| 4 | Wildlife conservation with one health approach: current scenario based on field research | Bahar Baviskar | Society for Wildlife Conservation, Education and Research |
| 5 | One Health digital platform for free-roaming dog enumeration, individual identification, vaccination monitoring and bite-response support | Harish Tiwari | IIT Guwahati |
Ashoka University
Wildlife Trust of India
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