Priya Ranganathan

Priya Ranganathan is a PhD student working with Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy and Dr. G. Ravikanth at ATREE, Bengaluru. A geologist by training, she received her Master's in Environmental Management, focusing on Landscape Ecology and Conservation Management, from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, Durham, USA. Her research interests include wetland ecology, ecosystem services, community-based conservation, human-wildlife conflict, and biodiversity conservation.  Her PhD research focuses on the ecohydrology and ecosystem services of Myristica swamps, a rare freshwater swamp forest found in the Western Ghats. Prior to joining the ATREE Academy as a PhD student, Priya worked as a Research Associate at ATREE with Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy on ecohydrological flows and as a researcher with the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru, where she helped start a conservation education programme in rural Karnataka and worked on issues of human-wildlife interactions in South India.

Priya is also an avid writer and founder/editor of an online children's nature magazine Youth for Nature, a writing mentor with Scholastic-India's Young Writers Academy, and a trained Bharatanatyam dancer for 15 years. Her published writing can be accessed on https://onlifeandwildlife.com/publications-in-popular-science/. She is the 2023 winner of the M. Krishnan Memorial Award for Nature Writing hosted by the Madras Naturalists Society. 

Scientific Publications with ATREE: 

Ranganathan, P., Ravikanth, G., & Aravind, N. A. (2021). A review of research and conservation of Myristica swamps, a threatened freshwater swamp of the Western Ghats, India. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 1-19.

Other Scientific Publication(s): 

Karanth, K. K., & Ranganathan, P. (2018). Assessing human–wildlife interactions in a forest settlement in Sathyamangalam and Mudumalai Tiger Reserves. Tropical conservation science, 11, 1940082918802758.

Ranganathan, P. (2017). The Effects of Land Use Change on Carnivore Use of Wildlife Dispersal Routes in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, India (Masters dissertation, M.Sc. thesis, Duke University).