ABOUT US: THE BUTTERFLIES OF INDIA TEAM

Reptiles of India website is a vast project that draws upon the expertise of a large number of reptile taxonomists, biologists and naturalists, and upon the generous contributions from photographers. As a result, this website is truly a consortium of scientists, whether they are professional, amateur or citizen. The current team members are:

EDITORS: Arjun Kamdar and Krushnamegh Kunte

PREVIOUS EDITORS: Varad B. Giri, Akshay A. Khandekar, Purnendu Roy

ASSISTANT EDITORS AND REVIEWERS: Nikhil Gaitonde, R. Chaitanya, Swapnil Pawar, Hemant Ogale, Manoj P., Harshil Patel, S. Harikrishnan, Jayaditya Purkayastha, Shubham Soni

This is an expanding list, so please let us know if you want to volunteer to develop this website, or want to nominate someone to be an editor or a reviewer.

Image contributors are mentioned on the images themselves, and they will be listed on a separate page, with links to their contributions, in due course.

PROFILES OF EDITORS AND REVIEWERS:

Krushnamegh Kunte: I am a naturalist broadly interested in the biology of butterflies. I received my PhD in Integrative Biology from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, in 2008. I was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University, USA, until 2011. In 2012 I joined the faculty at the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru (=Bangalore), as a Ramanujan Fellow. My research lab at NCBS investigates speciation and morphological diversification in butterflies. I have authored dozens of research papers and three books on butterflies. Read more at http://biodiversitylab.org or contact me by email if you want to learn more about my research.

Varad B. Giri: I am interested in taxonomy and systematics of amphibians and reptiles. I received my PhD from North Orissa University, Baripada, Odisha in 2013. I worked in the Collections Department of  BNHS for 12 years. I joined National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, as a Post Doctoral Fellow in 2015 and presently working as a Facility In-charge, Museum and Field Stations Facility at NCBS. I published about 40 research papers and equal number popular articles on Indian amphibians and reptiles. Email me or visit my website if you want to learn more about my work.

Akshay A. Khandekar: I am interested in taxonomy and systematics of lizards and snakes. I have completed my MSc in Zoology from Shivaji University, Kolhapur and currently associated with the Museum and Field Stations Facility at NCBS, Bengaluru, as a Curator of Herpetology. Previously I worked at the Centre For Ecological Sciences, IISC, Bengaluru as a Project Assistant. My main research interest is systematics, biogeography, and taxonomy of blind snakes in India. I am presently working in collaboration with various experts on the descriptions of a few reptiles from India and ecology of lizards.

Nikhil Gaitonde: I was fascinated by reptiles as a child and pursued the interest by completing the masters degree in Zoology from the University of Pune. Over the years I have participated in several biodiversity surveys. I have a keen interest in animal mating systems and currently working on the unique mating of the Western Ghats endemic frog, Nyctibatrachus patreaus and mimetic butterfly Papilo polytes for my PhD at the NCBS, Bengaluru.   

Purnendu Roy: I am a UK resident, but as a child I regularly visited Kolkata and later on in my teenage years spent most summer holidays in Manipur, Nagaland and  Arunachal Pradesh. I have a passion for the eastern Himalaya not just in butterflies, but also for the culture and landscape.  Me and my partner run a small shop trading with social enterprises from around the world.

R. Chaitanya: I am based in Bengaluru and not a trained biologist, but my propensity to pretend to be one is unsurpassed. My research interests lie in the systematics and taxonomy of lizards and snakes. Of late, I have developed a keen interest in biogeography and it's role in evolution. My outlook for the near future is to carry out research on Indian herpetofauna in correlation with these subjects.

Swapnil Pawar: I am a naturalist and keenly interested in biodiversity, presently based in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. I started participating in various scientific explorations with experts from my college days. I am presently conducting wildlife photography tours across India, which gives me immense opportunity to photo document the biodiversity. I am interested in reptiles and passionate about their natural history.

Hemant Ogale: I am a mechanical engineer by training and nature enthusiast by heart. I am based in my hometown Amboli in south-western Maharashtra and run a small resort, Whistling Woods. I have been documenting amphibians, reptiles, plants and butterflies in the Amboli area, for over a decade. I also study butterfly diversity of Amboli at various altitudes, their early stages, larval host plants and variation in preferred host plants. I am extending my support to various nature enthusiasts and researchers as well, who visit Amboli to study the biodiversity.

Manoj P.:  I am a naturalist working in SciGenom Research Foundation, Thrissur and lives in Kollam district, Kerala. I am a graduate in History from University of Kerala and a Naturalist by passion. It is about 20 years now after I started getting to know nature through a different mind-set than common. It all started as interest in bird watching back in the year 1990 from a book by Prof. K K Neelakandan about bird watching. Writings of Dr. Salim Ali, Kenneth Anderson, Jim Corbet and EPG also inspired my passion towards nature and nature conservation photography. My keen interest is in documenting flora and fauna especially reptiles, amphibians, insects, birds and their ecology.      

Harshil Patel: I am a young naturalist, interested in systematics and taxonomy of reptiles and amphibians. I received my MSc in Biosciences from Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat in 2011. Currently pursuing PhD and working as an INSPIRE Fellow at the same institute. Lately, I have developed a keen interest in the systematics of some poorly studied squamates of western India. I have published over 10 research papers and a couple of popular articles on Indian amphibians and reptiles.

S. Harikrishnan: I am a PhD student with Wildlife Institute of India/Saurashtra University. For my thesis, I studied the assembly of lizard communities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from a macroecological perspective. I also undertook surveys for herpetofauna in the Nicobar Islands. My primary interest is in ecology and conservation biology of amphibians and reptiles. However, since those interests cannot be pursued in the absence of good taxonomy, I try to keep a keen eye on developments in taxonomy and systematics as well.

Jayaditya Purkayastha: I am interested in studying the systematic of amphibians and reptiles of Northestern India. My PhD work is concerned with taxonomy of aquatic snake genus Xenochrophis. I work as general secretary of Help Earth (www.helpearth.co.in), an NGO working on conservation and research of biodiversity. Till date I have published more than 30 research articles and 5 books mainly concerning herpetofauna.

 

Page citation

Kunte, K. 2024. ABOUT US: THE BUTTERFLIES OF INDIA TEAM . In Kamdar, A. and K. Kunte. (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. v.1.26. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.