Qualifications:

BSc Environmental Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India (2009)

MSc Wildlife Biology, AVC College, Bharathidasan University, India (2011)

PhD student, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, University of Georgia, USA (Ongoing)

Email: sneha.dharwadkar@uga.edu

Profile: Sneha is a wildlife biologist, currently pursuing PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Her work is multidisciplinary and revolves around ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation education and computational biology. Sneha has broad experience of working with various non-profit organisations on research, conservation, and education programs. Some of her work focuses on understanding the role of freshwater turtles in maintaining the ecology of freshwater ecosystems and quantifying the impact of human activities on the turtles and their habitats, and the interface of humans and freshwater ecosystems. She is a co-founder of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises Foundation. FTTF India works on the research, education, and community conservation of the freshwater turtles and tortoises of India. Her PhD thesis revolves around phylogeography of India’s only endemic softshell turtle, the Leith’s softshell turtle, and infectious diseases of freshwater turtles in India. 

Sneha is deeply passionate about enhancing diversity and fostering equity and inclusion in the field of herpetology. She also works towards increasing participation of women of colour in herpetology. When not working, Sneha enjoys bird watching and painting.

Publications

Peer-reviewed Publications:

• Cyriac, V. P., Dharwadkar, S., Mital, A., & Mohan, A. V. (2022). 70 years of herpetology in India: insights into shifts in focal research areas and gender ratios among authors. Amphibia-Reptilia, 1(aop), 1-13.
• Ranganathan M.S., Mital, A and Dharwadkar S. (2020) Nilssonia gangetica Predation. Herpetological Review 51(3):2020 
• Dharwadkar S.,  Bednarski C., Inman D, and Mallapur G. (2018). Occurrence record of the Malabar Tree Toad Pedostibes tuberculosus Günter, 1875 (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Tillari, Northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India. Frog-Leg #137. In: Zoo’s Print 34(1):18-20
• Nath A., Sutradhar S.,  Kalai Mani A.,  Vishnu, V, Krishna Kumar, Laxmi Narayana B,  Naresh, B., Dharwadkar, S., Krishnan, G., Vinoth, B., Maniraj, R., & Reddy, D. M. (2012). Herpetofaunal assemblage with special emphasis on community structure and spatiality in amphibians of Cauvery delta region, Tamil Nadu

Popular Articles

• Mohan A. V and Dharwadkar S. 2021. Women in Herpetology.  In Sanctuary Asia, Vol. 41 No. 4, April 2021
• Mital A. and Dharwadkar S. (May 22, 2020). Can our turtles champion freshwater conservation? In Nature InFocus
• Dharwadkar S. (July 2020), Conservation of Freshwater Turtles, Spotlight on N. leithii conservation on Maharashtra (Article in Marathi Language). In Protected Area Update, Marathi, Volume 2, July 2020. 
• Dharwadkar, S. and Mital A. (May 27, 2019).  Two Herpetologists tell us why we need a week for turtles. In The Life of Science. 
• Dharwadkar, S. (June 1, 2018). Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of Karnataka. In JLR Explore. 
• Dharwadkar, S. (2015). It’s a ‘Frog-Eats-Frog’ world! Jalaplavit. 6 (2): 87-89