Bivash Pandav
Scientist – G, Head
Phone: 0135-2646286
E-mail: bivash.pandav [at] wii [dot] gov [dot] in

After completing his Masters in Wildlife Science from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 1993, I carried out a brief survey of sea turtle nesting beaches along the coast of Odisha. This survey resulted in the discovery of a new sea turtle mass nesting beach near the mouth of river Rushikulya in March 1994 along the southern Odisha coast. This pilot study led to my doctoral research on marine turtles along the coast of Odisha. As a research scholar of the WII, I carried out field research on marine turtles in Odisha as part of my Ph.D. dissertation from 1994 to 1999. I tagged thousands of ridley turtles, both males and females, that migrate to Odisha coast every winter, monitored their nesting success and documented their large scale fishery related mortalities during my doctoral research.

I joined WII as faculty in November 1999. Besides regular teaching and training assignments, WII provided me ample opportunities to continue field research. In 2003, along with colleagues, Drs. S.P. Goyal and Abishek Harihar, I embarked on a long-term monitoring program on tiger and prey populations in Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand, following voluntary relocation of human settlements. Results of this ongoing long term monitoring program has been instrumental in getting Rajaji declared a tiger reserve in 2015.  

In 2007 I was deputed to WWF-International. Operating from Kathmandu, Nepal, I coordinated WWF’s tiger program across 14 different landscapes in 11 tiger range countries. During this tenure I travelled extensively across Asia’s tiger habitats, witnessed massive destruction of their habitat in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, and came across a few success stories. After this stint with WWF-International, I returned to the WII in 2011. Between 2011 and 2020, I carried out long-term research on large mammals in the foothills of Himalayas as well as in the Northern Gangetic Plains and Central India.

I joined Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) as its director in January 2021 and served the organization for the next two years. I returned to the Wildlife Institute of India in April 2023 and is currently serving as a Senior Professor. My primary interest currently lies in training in-service forest officers in wildlife management and teaching post graduate students in wildlife science.