Qualifications: M.Sc. Wildlife Conservation Action, Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research (2016-2018)

B.A. Geography, Travel and Tourism Management, Lucknow University

Email: tanuj@dakshin.org

Profile: Nature has always been a big part of Tanuj’s life. Growing up in lush green cantonment areas across the country, birds, bees and snakes in his homes were a common occurrence. Family trips were more often than not centered around wildlife reserves or trips to the Himalayas. Instead of Cartoon Network, what interested him were documentaries on National Geographic and BBC earth, especially the shows hosted by Sir David Attenborough, Steve Irvin and Bear Grylls.

When the time came to think about career options it was pretty clear as to what he wanted to do. Not coming from a science background, he had to transition from a Bachelors in Geography to an M.Sc. in Wildlife Conservation. During his Masters he chose to do a dissertation with WII on the fishing communities around the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Shortly after that, he interned with WTI, where he studied the interaction of the Nomadic herders of the Pir-Panjal ranges of Jammu & Kashmir with the large carnivores of these high altitudes (Himalayan Brown Bear, Himalayan Black Bear, Tibetan Wolf and the Common Leopard). After his masters he volunteered with Turtle Survival Alliance and was exposed to turtles and other threatened freshwater fauna which is what piqued his interest in aquatic ecology.

He has worked with WWF-India in the Western India Tiger Landscape (Ranthambhore and surrounding protected areas) researching on components of population ecology of the tiger, leopard, striped hyena, Indian grey wolf and the sloth bear. During this time he also worked on Human-Wildlife conflict mitigation and was part of the Coalition for Corridors which along with the Forest Department was able to delineate and identify bottlenecks for dispersing wildlife between Protected areas.

His other interests in this field include Wildlife Photography and Conservation Communication.

At Dakshin, Tanuj works as the Projects Coordinator of the Marine Flagships Programme and is involved in the administration of the projects, liaisoning with the Forest Department and working with the outreach team.