PEOPLE

Over the last few years, people from different disciplinary backgrounds have spent time at RAMBLE, undertaking both short and long-term research, collaborative film-making with the local community, and spending time in the region.

Fellows

Fellows are individuals who are leading research in the Banni and are willing to mentor students or Thaker fellows undertaking research in the Banni.

Pankaj Joshi

has a PhD in Plant Science (Ecology, Taxonomy and Conservation) from Bhavnagar University, Gujarat. He has over 15 years of research experience in the fields of plant taxonomy, participatory conservation of rare and endangered biodiversity and restoration of natural habitats. He was formerly with the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology and has published in a variety of journals. While at Sahjeevan and the Centre for Pastoralism, his work has focussed primarily on restoration ecology and resource mapping exercises with the local community.

Mihir Mathur

is an interdisciplinary researcher working on sustainability and climate change. His expertise is in Systems Thinking, System Dynamics Modeling, Group Model Building, Climate Change Adaptation, and Natural Resource Management. He is a co-founder director of DESTA Research LLP (http://www.desta.co.in), a firm dedicated to providing research and consulting services for sustainable development using systems thinking and system dynamics.
More on his work can be found at here.

Nitin Rai

is a political ecologist whose research is centered on the following questions: How do issues of power get implicated in conservation efforts? How is knowledge produced and why are certain forms of knowledge privileged over others? His work aims to challenge current narratives that view nature as static and human presence in forests as being inimical to biodiversity. His work is centrally focused on how modern conservation approaches and the expropriation of forests for wildlife conservation are affecting the livelihoods of people. He is a Fellow a ATREE and also an editor of the journal Conservation and Society.

Sanjay Barnela

is one of the few filmmakers in India working in the niche area of conservation and livelihoods. With diversity – both cultural and environmental -- remaining a core theme, Sanjay has expanded his cinematic subjects to include women leaders and women musicians across the Indian landscape. He is also currently working on an ambitious series of films on the Forest Rights Act. Sanjay joined the Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology in Bangalore in 2012 where he heads Srishti Films, a center dedicated to teaching professional non-fiction filmmaking. A number of student productions have received awards at both national and international film festivals.

Farhana Ibrahim

is an anthropologist whose research interests include the study of borders, policing, migration and ethnographic perspectives on the state. She is a faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Her book, 'Settlers, Saints, and Sovereigns: An Ethnography of State Formation in Western India' (Routledge 2009) is based on ethnographic research among Muslim pastoral communities in Banni and neighbouring regions of Kachchh. She has co-edited a special issue of the Economic and Political Weekly, 'Exploring Borderlands in South Asia’ and has published extensively in academic journals. Many of her publications can be found here.

Ankila Hiremath

is an ecologist at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation at ATREE. Her interests are in the dynamics and resilience of social-ecological systems, and in ecosystem restoration and novel ecosystems. The focus of her work in Banni has been on investigating the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of Prosopis juliflora and exploring options for management and restoration of the novel social-ecological system that Banni has become.

Pankaj Joshi

has a PhD in Plant Science (Ecology, Taxonomy and Conservation) from Bhavnagar University, Gujarat. He has over 15 years of research experience in the fields of plant taxonomy, participatory conservation of rare and endangered biodiversity and restoration of natural habitats. He was formerly with the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology and has published in a variety of journals. While at Sahjeevan and the Centre for Pastoralism, his work has focussed primarily on restoration ecology and resource mapping exercises with the local community.

Nirav Mehta

has a PhD in Botany from M.S. University of Baroda in 2016. His research focuses on plant ecology, impact of invasives on grassland ecosystem, plant-soil interactions, carbon sequestration, and impact of climate change. He has been a post-doctoral fellow with ATREE between August 2017 and September 2019, while also managing day-to-day activities at the field station. He has recently taken over as the Director of the RAMBLE field station.

Vasant Saberwal

is part ecologist and part sociologist. He did a master’s degree in wildlife biology from the Wildlife Institute of India and his PhD on the politics of shepherd access to grazing resources in the Himalaya from Yale University. His research interests derive from a broad political ecology framework, including environmental myth making, the sociology of knowledge, the politics of access to and use of natural resources, and the links between institutions, resource use and a range of ecological variables.

Abi Vanak

is a Senior Fellow and Convenor of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation at ATREE. His work is centrally concerned with issues relating to the conservation of species, landscapes and biodiversity. His research focuses on conservation in natural systems, but also in human-modified and human-dominated landscapes. Much of his past work involves the study of mammalian carnivores, and in particular, meso-carnivores. In general, carnivores exist at relatively low numbers and yet can dramatically influence animal and plant communities. Thus, by studying carnivores, he hopes to gain insight into the importance of the individual within natural systems. His research program is not, however, restricted to either carnivores or mammals.

Sandeep Virmani

is an architect and conservationist with a focus on policy and capacity building in the Kachchh district. He has worked extensively in Kachchh, and over the years helped set up four organizations in the region, including Sahjeevan, one of the RAMBLE core partners. Other organizations include Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT), which focuses on water in all its dimensions, the Kutch Sajiv Kheti Manch (KSM), networking the initiatives of the organic farmers of Kachchh, and the Hunnarshala Foundation, a non-profit working towards sustainable habitats which offers its knowledge and skills for building designs, settlement planning, social housing, disaster reconstruction, wastewater treatment systems, and infrastructure development. Sandeep is on the board of a large number of organizations in Kachchh.

Mahesh Sankaran

is a community and ecosystem ecologist from NCBS whose interests lie in understanding the role of bottom-up (climate and resource availability) and top-down forces (herbivory and fire) in structuring vegetation, and regulating vegetation responses to changing climates. Much of his work has been carried out in savannas and rangelands globally. Research at his lab focuses on how interactions and feedbacks between climate, biogeochemistry, fires and herbivory influence the structure, composition and stability of ecosystems and the cycling and sequestration of nutrients, and how projected changes in climate such as increasing variability of rainfall, increased frequency of droughts, increasing aridity in the tropics, nitrogen and phosphorus deposition and rising CO2 will impact ecosystem function, stability and services.

Students

* Recipients of the Jaikrishna Indraji Thaker Research Opportunity

Chetan Misher *

is a PhD scholar at ATREE. He is studying the role of invasive species in mediating inter-species interactions in socio-ecological systems, specifically, how Prosopis juliflora invasion and the presence of free-ranging dogs shapes predator-prey interactions in the Banni landscape. He works with Dr. Abi Vanak.

Ramya Ravi

is a PhD scholar at ATREE, studying the socio-economic transformation of the Banni grassland due to the introduction of Prosopis juliflora. She is working under the supervision of Dr. Ankila Hiremath.

Ovee Thorat *

is a PhD scholar at ATREE. Her research uses a Political Ecology approach to understand the drivers and consequences of grassland conservation and development programmes in Banni. Dr. Nitin Rai is supervising her research. Along with Ashish Nerlekar and Pankaj Joshi, Ovee has produced a field guide called ‘Grasses of Banni’, that describes 40 species of grasses in the landscape, with their local names and uses .

Field Station Staff

Nirav Mehta

Director, RAMBLE.

Rasul Sodha Jatt

knows the landscape of Banni like the back of his hand. As a driver, he helps researchers reach the remotest parts of the landscape. He also has good buffalo-trading skills and is well networked within the pastoralist groups of the Banni.

Habhu Bijal Marvada

is a multi-tasker. From assisting the director, to helping researchers conduct their studies, Habhu has been the go-to person from the local community.

Kabul Adhu Halepotra

is an excellent cook, a warm caretaker, a good story-teller, and an expert chung (mouth-harp) player.

Khiyara Ramu Marvada

helps in housekeeping by keeping the field station clean and organized. He also tends to the plants and animals on the premises.

Community 
Representatives

Representatives 
of BPUMS

Research 
Committee

Sushma Iyengar
Pankaj Joshi
Purnendu Kavoori
Vasant Saberwal
Mahesh Sankaran
Sandeep Virmani
Director, RAMBLE

Management 
Committee

Pankaj Joshi
Mahesh Sankaran
Ovee Thorat
Sandeep Virmani
Director, RAMBLE

support us

Over the last few years, we have received financial and institutional support from a number of local and international organizations. If you are interested in supporting us, please contact us at:
Send us a mail

contact us

Field station located at:
Banni Research Centre,
Hodko village, Bhuj,
Gujarat 370510
Connect with us