I am an integrative ecologist, with broad training in Wildlife and Data Science. Before joining WII as a faculty in 2023, I completed my Master's degree in Wildlife Science from WII in 2019 and then went on the work at IISER Tirupati and IISER Bhopal. I was also associated with the Bustard Recovery Program of WII during this period. My work during most of this time was focused on understanding the ecology and behavior of desert & grassland birds.

I am academically interested in understanding population and community level patterns of open-habitat species (mainly birds); and studying the behavioral and physiological mechanisms that bring about these patterns. My other academic interests include analyzing complex datasets and finding automated or remote-sensing based solutions for wildlife research and monitoring. My landscape of preference is the Deserts and apart from birds, I also enjoy studying amphibians and mammals.

I have a lot of interest in pedagogy and enjoy teaching a variety of subjects ranging from programming & statistics to behavior & physiology. I am also interested in natural history exploration and like to roam around looking for birds and herps. Beyond science, I like watching and playing football, cricket and badminton. I also like reading non-fiction and listening to a variety of music.
I am currently working on field projects studying threatened birds in the Thar desert and desk projects aimed at automating data collection, management and processing pipelines for different kinds of ecological datasets.

Specialization: desert ecology, population ecology, data science and programming, integrative ecology

Key research communications:

Peer-reviewed papers:

1. Kher, V. & Dutta, S. (2021). Rangelands and crop fallows can supplement but not replace protected grasslands in
conservation of Thar Desert’s avifauna during the dry season. Journal of Arid Environments. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2021.104623
2. Warudkar, A., Goyal, N., Kher, V., Vinay, K.L., Chanda, R., Bandi, R.S., Jenkins, C., Robin, V.V., Pimm, S. (2022). Using the Area of Habitat to assess the extent of protection of Indian Birds. Biotropica. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13132

Technical reports:

1. Dutta, S., Karkaria, T., Bipin, C. M., Uddin, Kher, V., .... Jhala, Y. V. (2023) Bustard Recovery Program: Progress Report. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
2. Krishnan, A., Lahiri, S., Kher, V., Mohan, R., and Sangwan, T. (2023) Acoustic monitoring of grassland birds at D’Ering Wildlife Sanctuary, East Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. Progress report submitted to Arunachal Forest Department.
3. Dutta, S., Bipin, C. M., Uddin, Kher, V., .....Jhala, Y. V. (2022) Bustard Recovery Program: Progress Report. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
4. Dutta, S., Kher, V., Uddin, M., .....Jhala, Y. V. (2021). Status survey of migratory birds and key wildlife in Bikaner district, Rajasthan. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun | TR No/2021/24

Short communications and natural history notes:

1. Kher, V., Bandi, R.S., Deshpande, Y. (2021). Status of the Blue-eared Kingfisher Alcedo meninting in the northern
Eastern Ghats and the Rajmahal Hills of eastern India. Indian Birds. https://indianbirds.in/pdfs/IB_17_5_KherETAL_BlueearedKingfisher.pdf

Conference talks and posters:

1. Kher, V., Dutta, S., and Bustard Recovery Program Team (2022) Monitoring ecology of the Great Indian Bustard using telemetry. Oral presentation at the Bird Monitoring Symposium, April 2022.
2. Kher, V. & Dutta, S. (2019) Response of bird communities to contemporary land-use changes in the Thar Desert of Western India. Oral presentation at the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS), Bengaluru, September 2019. Honors: Best Student Talk
3. Kher, V., & Dutta, S. (2023) Irrigation drives drastic change in bird assemblages of the Thar Desert. Poster presentation at the ATBC conference, Coimbatore, July 2023.

Presentations by mentored students:

1. Gupta, S., Kher, V., Dutta, S., and Bustard Recovery Program Team (2023) Monitoring Great Indian Bustard behaviour using accelerometry. Poster presentation at the Bird Monitoring Symposium, March 2023.
2. Kulkarni, A., Kher, V., Dutta, S., Krishnan, A. (2023) Acoustic monitoring of birds in changing land-use patterns in semi-arid ecosystems. Talk at the ATBC, Coimbatore July 2023. & Bird Monitoring Symposium March 2023.
3. Thakkar, S., Kher, V., Sudame, S., Sandhikar, P., Deshmukh, S., Uddin, M. & Dutta, S. (2023) Automated Passive acoustic monitoring of Lesser Florican. Talk at the Bird Monitoring Symposium, March 2023.