Faculty

Sougata Sadhukhan
Dr. Sougata SadhukhanAssistant Professor

Experience 9 years

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Active and Passive Acoustic Surveys, Acoustic Data Analysis, Radio Telemetry, Animal Trapping (primarily wolves), Distance Sampling, Camera Trapping, Sign Survey, GIS Analysis, Snake Rescue and Habitat Management, Basic Genetic technologies- Electrophoresis, PCR, Isolation/purification. 


Being a tech-savvy and passionate ecologist, Sougata Sadhukhan has a keen interest in emerging technologies in wildlife conservation. After completing his Masters in Zoology from Calcutta University, he started his research career at the Wildlife Institute of India in 2013. There he worked on several projects including All India Tiger Estimation Projects, Smart Patrolling Projects (MSTriPES), Wolf Projects and a bioacoustics monitoring projects. He completed his doctoral work on “Understanding Wolf Howls and their application In Individual Identification and Population Estimation” from Forest Research Institute (Deemed to be) University, Dehradun (Research Centre WII). His PhD focussed on cutting edge methods on active acoustics-based population estimation of Indian wolf.

  • B.Sc Zoology
  • M.Sc. Zoology
  • PhD in Forestry (Wildlife Science)
  • Diploma in Photography
  • Wildlife Conservation, Bioacoustics, Population Ecology, Large Carnivore.
    9 years of research experience in Wildlife Sciences with premier governmental Institutes in India.
  • Subjects taught : Ecosystem Studies/Biodiversity Assessment And Conservation /Field Techniques/ Field Taxonomy I//Basic Statistical Methods / Conservation Management
  • Program Incharge of MSc Wildlife Conservation and Action at Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) since 15 July 2023
  • Cultural Coordinator for student activities at Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University)
  • Invited as a subject expert in a fully funded investigative bioacoustics workshop at the University of Cambridge (2023)
  • Member of the Animal Behaviour Society Educational Committee and participated in all the meetings/workshops from August 2020
  • Project Associate II, Wildlife Institute of India: Understanding the Impacts of Western Coalfields Ltd. Mining Areas (WCL) and Chandrapur Thermal Power Plant (2020-21)
  • Junior Research Fellow, Wildlife Institute of India: Ecology of wolves with emphasis on dispersal in the human-dominated landscape of Maharashtra (2017-20)
  • Landscape Level Survey of Great Indian Bustard Census 2017 (Team Lead)
  • Member of Expert Committee, Wildlife Institute of India and MoEFCC for Investigation of surplus sheep killing, Odisha
  • Junior Research Fellow, Wildlife Institute of India: Population estimation & homesite selection by wolves in human-dominated landscape Maharashtra, India
  • Research Biologist, Wildlife Institute of India: Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (MSTrIPES)
  • Great Indian Bustard Census 2015 (Team Lead) Volunteer position in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India and Rajasthan Forest Department
  • All India Tiger Monitoring Project 2014
  • Invited as a subject expert in a fully funded investigative bioacoustics workshop at the University of Cambridge (2023)
  • Member of the Animal Behaviour Society Educational Committee and participated in all the meetings/workshops from August 2020
  • Project Associate II, Wildlife Institute of India: Understanding the Impacts of Western Coalfields Ltd. Mining Areas (WCL) and Chandrapur Thermal Power Plant (2020-21)
  • Junior Research Fellow, Wildlife Institute of India: Ecology of wolves with emphasis on dispersal in the human-dominated landscape of Maharashtra (2017-20)
  • Landscape Level Survey of Great Indian Bustard Census 2017 (Team Lead)
  • Member of Expert Committee, Wildlife Institute of India and MoEFCC for Investigation of surplus sheep killing, Odisha
  • Junior Research Fellow, Wildlife Institute of India: Population estimation & homesite selection by wolves in human-dominated landscape Maharashtra, India
  • Research Biologist, Wildlife Institute of India: Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (MSTrIPES)
  • Great Indian Bustard Census 2015 (Team Lead) Volunteer position in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India and Rajasthan Forest Department
  • All India Tiger Monitoring Project 2014
  • Wildlife Acoustics Equipment Grants (Primary Investigator) from Wildlife Acoustics, Inc, USA
  • Equipment Support for the Project, “Acoustic Ecology and Anthropogenic Interplay: Distribution Dynamics of Straw-Headed Bulbul in Pulau Ubin, Singapore” (2024)
  • International Travel Support (ITS) Scheme from Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), SERB-DST, Govt. of India to attend International Statistical Ecology Conference 2024, United Kingdom (13 July 2024 to 19 July 2024)
  • Seed money for minor research project 23-24 (Co-investigator) from Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University, Pune, for the project “The effect of human subsidised food on the gut microbiome of wild Indian grey wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) in Human altered grassland habitats of Maharashtra” (2024)
  • Fully funded investigative workshop on automated detection for bioacoustics from the University of Cambridge. The workshop aims to identify the key obstacles to implementing practical automatic detection of animal sounds in remotely deployed recording devices, review the existing and future solutions, and propose a framework for making this technology available to conservation and behaviour researchers (2023)
  • International Travel Support from the International Bioacoustics Council for attending and presenting a paper (Recognising wolf howls) at the International Bioacoustics Conference 2019, Brighton, UK (2019)
  • Sadhukhan, S., Khan, S., & Habib, B. (2023). Silencing the call of the wild–howling behaviour and responses of the wolf to Anthropocene in India. Animal Conservation. (Scopus and Web of Science Indexed). Impact Factor: 4.3 .  https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12881
  • Khan, S., Shrotriya, S., Sadhukhan, S., Lyngdoh, S., Goyal, S. P., & Habib, B. (2022). Comparative Ecological Perspectives of Two Ancient Lineages of Gray Wolves: Woolly Wolf (Canis lupus chanco) and Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10, 775612. . (Scopus and Web of Science Indexed).Impact Factor: 2.4 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.775612
  • Sadhukhan, S., Khan, S., & Habib, B. (2021). Identifying unknown Indian wolves by their distinctive howls: its potential as a non-invasive survey method. Scientific Reports, 11 (1), 7309. (Scopus and Web of Science Indexed ) Impact Factor: 9.8 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86718-w
  • Sadhukhan, S., Hennelly, L., & Habib, B. (2019). Characterising the harmonic vocal repertoire of the Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). PLOS ONE, 14 (10), e0216186. (Scopus and Web of Science Indexed ) Impact Factor: 3.752 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216186