Shekhar Kolipaka
is a bio social conservation researcher and practitioner. His current work focus on carnivores conservation outside PA’s, human-wildlife interactions and coexistence. He studied Natural Resource Management (MPhil) at the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) in India. He has an MSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa and a PhD in Bio Social Conservation Research from Leiden University, The Netherlands. In his first project in 2000, he examined the status and distribution of the endangered Indian caracal in India. The synthesis of his work is published as a book, The Forgotten Cat: Caracal in India. His interests also extend to other lesser known wildcats and small carnivores and studying such relatively unknown animals have allowed him to collect a wealth of information on Indian wildlife. He published some of that information in a book titled Tracks and Signs of India wildlife. He spent a considerable amount of time in the Panna landscape of Madhya Pradesh, where he has local patronage. Such local patronage allowed him to address locally relevant and complex human-wildlife issues. For instance, during 2007-08 when tigers became extinct in the Panna national park and the park management wanted local people’s support for the tiger reintroduction project, he advised the park management. Through an action research project he encouraged locally influential people from diverse social groups to actively participate and support the government’s efforts to revive the tiger numbers and made the program a success. His four years of work with the local people is published as a book titled, Assessing Change to a Human-Tiger Coexistence Scenario using Theory U. Following his work on local people, he examined how the increasing numbers of reintroduced tigers in Panna, as they expanded into the adjoining human use lands, and people living there co-adapted. His encouraging findings on coexistence scenarios are published in the book Can tigers survive in human-dominated landscapes?
Dr Shekhar Kolipaka currently works as an independent conservation consultant and advisor and his on-going projects include;
- Developing an acoustics-based early warning system to reduce predation of livestock by wolves.
- Involving local faith leaders in conservation communication efforts in Panna, India.
- A study on the human-fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) interactions in Howrah, West Bengal state of India.
If you want more detailed information on Shekhar Kolipaka please visit his www.linkedin.com/in/shekharkolipaka-7503a223
