Ratna

Education


Professional Experience

Amani

I am a Master’s thesis student in the Ecology and Environment Lab, pursuing my degree from Ahmedabad University. I joined the lab in 2024 as a Master’s thesis student. I am interested in exploring individualistic behavioural traits using the Sailfin Catfish, a fresh water fish invasive for various parts of the globe including India, as a model organism.

Brinky

I am a PhD student in the Ecology and Environment Lab, and I joined the team in August 2019. My doctoral research focuses on understanding ecological adaptation of the Mugger Crocodile populations across three geographically diverse habitats within the state of Gujarat.  I did my masters' from BVIEER in wildlife biology, and my dissertation was on understanding human-mugger conflict in the Vadodara district, Gujarat. 

Chena

I am a PhD student in the Ecology and Environment Lab, and I joined the lab as a Master's thesis student in 2019 and have joined as a Ph.D. student since 2020. I have completed my integrated Masters in Life Sciences degree from Ahmedabad University. I am studying causal relationship between environmental stimuli and ecological processes using two congeneric, cichlid species.

Disha

I have joined the Ecology and Environment Lab, Ahmedabad University as an intern in February 2024.

I am working on a project of understanding the behavioural and physiological adaptation of mugger crocodile that lives across diverse habitats in India through non-invasive sampling.

I have completed an Undergraduate in Forestry from Dolphin Institute of Biomedical and natural sciences, Dehradun.

Kartikey

I am a Master’s thesis student in the ecology and environment lab and doing my degree from Ahmedabad university. I joined the lab in 2022 as a Masters thesis student. I am working on understanding habitat characterisitcs and morphological variations across different populations of Etroplus suratensis or Green chromide, an endemic fish to the Indian subcontinent.

Suman 

I am a PhD student in the Ecology and Environment Lab, and I joined the team in August 2019. I am working on invasive fish biology and curious to know about the community-level interactions among exotic and native species. In particular, my research focuses on  ecology and management of the exotic sailfin catfish (Pterigoplichtys sp.), native to Amazon rainforest, which has been introduced in India by aquaculture trade. I have completed post graduation in marine biology from Pondicherry University, Port Blair, A & N Islands.

Tathagata

I joined the Ecology and Environment Lab as a PhD student in 2023 and completed my masters thesis from IISER Kolkata. I always find it fascinating how animals behave and interact with the environment. I would like to understand basking behaviour in mugger crocodiles and different ecological and physiological contexts associated with that behaviour

Alumni

Heli Raval, Masters student, submitted thesis on "Understanding shoaling behavior in a freshwater fish - Etroplus maculatus (Orange Chromide)" 

Aditi Shah Masters student, submitted  thesis on "Understanding choice behaviour in context of novel versus familiar enviornment in a native cichlid fish, Etroplus maculatus"

Nirali Panchal Masters student, submitted thesis on "Non-invasive monitoring of stress physiology in leopards (Panthera pardus) in captivity"