Nachiket Kelkar

Nachiket is keenly interested in developing interdisciplinary and long-term understanding of the ecological and socio-political processes that affect biodiversity conservation and human livelihood security in riverine and wetland ecosystems. He has been conducting research and conservation work for Ganges river dolphins and capture fisheries in the Gangetic plains of Bihar, India, since 2007. His other research work has spanned across marine fishes, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, moths, terrestrial plants, dugongs, sea turtles, crocodilians, water birds, otters, spiders, and bats. His topical expertise includes wildlife population ecology and estimation, large river hydrology, sensory ecology, remote sensing applications in hydrological monitoring, environmental history, sociology, and Bayesian statistics.

Nachiket Kelkar is an ecologist with a Ph.D. in socio-environmental history of resource conflicts in riverine fisheries, and a M.Sc. in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. His long-term research and conservation work on Ganges river dolphins, riverine biodiversity, and capture fisheries in the Gangetic plains began in 2007. He heads the Riverine Ecosystems and Livelihoods (REAL) programme at the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), is an Adjunct Scientist with Foundation for Ecological Research, Learning, and Advocacy (FERAL), and a Member of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group. He is also a Member of the State Board for Wildlife and multiple advisory committees to the Department of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, Govt. of Bihar. He is an Associate Editor for the Ecological Society of America’s prestigious Frontiers for Ecology and the Environment journal. Nachiket joined TDU as an Assistant Professor in 2024-25.