I am an evolutionary ecologist primarily driven by my interest in biodiversity research and conservation and aim at making an impact at the grass-root level.
An admin of DragonflySouthAsia, OwlIndia, and RoadKill Network, I am actively involved in the co-creation of knowledge by outreach through the use of popular media and citizen science.
I love teaching and the process of co-learning. I am a strong proponent of experiential learning. I believe that all the efforts that we put into research, teaching, and advocacy will help conserve our planet and life on it.
I am a TEDx speaker, Prakriti Fellow, IUCN Contributor, SAEVUS Magazine’s ‘Rising Star of Conservation‘ awardee, and Maharashtra Vruksha Samvardhini’s Young Scientist awardee. I am a published Marathi writer, badminton-er, and love to be on stage doing conservation outreach or performing.
Dr Pankaj Koparde, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Ecology & Environmental Management
Faculty of Sustainability Studies
MIT World Peace University, Kothrud, Pune, India
pankaj[dot]koparde@mitwpu[dot]edu[dot]in
Faculty web-page
At the TEDx platform, I talk about how citizen science is helping India lead in biodiversity data collection. Here I narrate my journey as a wildlife researcher and what I truly feel about the biodiversity around us. I then go on to tell the stories of DragonflySouthAsia, OwlIndia, and Roadkill Network, citizen science-based groups, which I presently manage. The citizen collected data is a promising leap in biodiversity data collection and our future depends on data!
At the Towards an Ecological Landscape (TEL-3) platform, I discuss the importance of odonates as an ecological indicator and how landscape architects must include odonate-friendly elements in their work