Anukul Nath


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Anukul NathI am an ecologist with a keen interest in addressing conservation challenges through the integration of interdisciplinary approaches. For more than a decade, I have engaged in interdisciplinary research across the Terai Region and North-eastern States of India, leveraging my expertise in wildlife biology and geoinformatics. Broadly, my research focuses on population, quantitative, restoration, and landscape ecology. My interests lie in mainstreaming scientific and modelled explorations to advance conservation planning and implementation, particularly in newer ways of integrating technologies with local knowledge to safeguard biodiversity.

For my PhD, I studied the impact of urbanization on sparrows, and for my post-doctoral studies, I extensively worked on the elusive and endangered Hispid hare and its highly threatened grassland habitat across the entire Terai landscape. Before joining as a faculty at the Wildlife Institute of India, I worked at the UNESCO Category 2 Centre on World Natural Heritage Management and Training for the Asia and the Pacific Region, focusing on the monitoring, research and capacity building of Natural and Mixed World Heritage Sites in India. My current work focuses on the threatened grassland fauna of the Terai region, human-wildlife interactions (Asian Elephant as a model species), and biodiversity assessment at the landscape level.

I also have an interest in documenting various facets of the natural history of herpetofauna, with a specific focus on serpents.

Research interest: population ecology, landscape ecology and conservation biology

Selected publications

  •  Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha, Bibhuti P Lahkar (2022). Correlation does not imply causation: decline of house sparrow overshadowed by electromagnetic radiation. Urban Ecosystems 25, 1279–1295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01227-6
  • Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha, Minarul Haque, Bibhuti P Lahkar (2022). How many sparrows are there in a city of million people? Understanding the population of sympatric sparrows in the urban gradient of a tropical city in Southeast Asia. Urban Ecosystems 25, 1065-1081 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01210-1  
  • Anukul Nath, Minarul Haque, Bibhuti P Lahkar (2019). Sparrows in urban complexity: macro and micro-scale habitat use of sympatric sparrows in Guwahati City, India. Urban Ecosystems. Urban Ecosystems 22, 1047–1060. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00876-4
  • Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha, Panna Deb, Arup Kumar Das, Bibhuti P. Lahkar (2016) Nesting in a Crowd: Response of House Sparrow Towards Proximity to Spatial Cues in Commercial Zones of Guwahati City. Proceedings of Zoological Society 69, 249–254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12595-015-0149-4
  • Anukul Nath, Bibhuti P Lahkar, Namita Brahma, Pranjit Sarmah, Arup Das, Suvasish Das, Thunu Basumatary, Rajual Islari, Anindya Swargowari (2023). Breaking Dawn: Factors influencing mammalian habitat usage in western Assam following socio-political instability, Journal for Nature Conservation 72, 126357, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2023.126357
  • Anukul Nath, Alolika Sinha, Bibhuti P Lahkar, Namita Brahma (2019). In search of Aliens: Factors influencing the distribution of Chromolaena odorata L. and Mikania micrantha Kunth in the Terai grasslands of Manas National Park, India. Ecological Engineering 131: 16-26
  • Alolika Sinha, Anukul Nath, Bibhuti P. Lahkar, Namita Brahma, Hiranya Kumar Sarma, Anindya Swargowari (2022). Understanding the efficacy of different techniques to manage Chromolaena odorata L., an Invasive Alien Plant in the sub-Himalayan tall grasslands: Toward grassland recovery, Ecological Engineering, 179, 106618, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106618
  • Anukul Nath, Pallabi Chakraborty, Vivek Sarkar, Chitiz Joshi, Bhumesh Singh Bhadouria, Niraj Kakati, Sonali Ghosh, and Gautam Talukdar (2022). Monitoring Outstanding Universal Value: An Analysis of the Status of Natural World Heritage Sites in India. Journal of Heritage Management 7(1): 37-62. 9.
  • Anukul Nath, Vivek Sarkar, Pathik Saha, Pushpal Goswami, Sanjoy Sutradhar, Sanjeev Ray, Kingshuk Das Chaudhuri, Biswajit Chakdar, and Abhijit Das (2021). Connecting the Dots: New Distribution Records of the Rare Coral Red Kukri Snake, Oligodon kheriensis Acharjee and Ray 1936, in India. REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS 28(1):91–94 10.
  • Sanath Krishna Muliya, Anukul Nath, Gandla Chethan Kumar, Avinash Visvanathan, Melvin Selvan, Raghuram Gowda, Vishal Santra, Abhijit Das (2021). Addressing Wallacean shortfall using small sampling approach: a case study with endemic Lycodon flavicollis (Squamata: Colubridae) Mukherjee & Bhupathy, 2007, Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity, 14(2): 159-168 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japb.2020.12.005.
  • Susmita Khan, Anukul Nath and Abhijit Das (2020). The Distribution of the Elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) on the Indian Subcontinent: Implications for Conservation and Management. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 15(1):212–227.
  • Anukul Nath, Abhijit Das, Sanjoy Sutradhar, Deepankar Barman, Biswajit Chakdar, Sanath Krishna Muliya and Gandla Chethan Kumar (2019). New distribution records of Russell‟s viper Daboia russelii in Northeast India with notes on envenomation. Herpetozoa 31 (3/4): 145 – 156 14.
  • Anukul Nath, Hilloljyoti Singha, and Panna Deb (2018). First report on the presence of Amyda cartilaginea (Boddaert, 1770) from Assam, India. Hamadryad 38 (1 & 2): 38 – 42. 15.