Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, India.
+91-8308303704
varunkher23 [at] wii [dot] gov [dot] in
About
I am an integrative ecologist working on wildlife of deserts and grasslands. 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. A lot of my work is applied in nature, and I have been involved in projects related to species recovery and ecological restoration. At WII, I teach a variety of subjects ranging from programming & statistics to behavior & physiology.
Academic Positions
August 2023 - Current : Scientist C at Wildlife Institute of India
August 2022 - August 2023 : Research Fellow at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal
January 2021 - August 2022 : Project Fellow at Wildlife Institute of India
August 2019 - December 2020 : Project Fellow at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati
Education
MSc in Wildlife Sciences at Wildlife Institute of India (2017-2019)
BSc in Natural Science (Zoology, Geology, Botany) at Fergusson College, Pune (2014-2017)
Research Interest
Deserts
Grasslands
Population Ecology
Data Science and Programming
Integrative
Ecology
Endangered Species
Publications
Kher, V., & Dutta, S. (2021). Rangelands and crop fallows can supplement but not replace protected grasslands in sustaining Thar Desert's avifauna during the dry season. Journal of Arid Environments, 195, 104623
Warudkar, A., Goyal, N., Kher, V., Vinay, K. L., Chanda, R., Bandi, R. S., ... & Pimm, S. L. (2022). Using the area of habitat to assess the extent of protection of India\'s birds. Biotropica, 54(6), 1466-1479
Varun Shriniwas Kher
Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, Dehradun 248001, India.
+91-8308303704
varunkher23 [at] wii [dot] gov [dot] in