Saloni Bhatia

Fellows

Saloni Bhatia

Fellow, Forests, Governance and Livelihoods

Saloni is deeply committed to advancing global sustainability efforts by complementing scientific rigour with compassion and empathy. Her work straddles research, practice, and policy. She co-leads a cross-institutional project called GRAZIER (Greater Resilience in Arid Zones through Exchange and Research) that examines the intersections between rangeland conservation, pastoralist wellbeing, and epistemic justice in Ladakh. She also serves as co-chair for CONNECT (Conviviality Network for Nature, Environment, and Communities Together) — a group that studies human-wildlife interactions, at ATREE.

Her interests are diverse, encompassing the psycho-social and gendered dimensions of multispecies interactions, human-wildlife coexistence through biocultural approaches, the integration of equity and justice into conservation decision-making, as well as ‘meta’ research on conservation. For her PhD, Saloni investigated the relationships between people, and snow leopards and wolves in Ladakh.

She is recognised as a PhD Guide and an Adjunct Faculty at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, is also a certified mentor. She currently serves on the Board of the Society for Conservation Biology’s Social Science Working Group. Additionally, she is a member of the Methods Expert Group at Eklipse (EU) and the International Association for the Study of Commons. Saloni takes pride in blending academic research with practical insights to inspire positive change in conservation and sustainability efforts across the globe.

Projects

Greater Resilience in Arid Zones through Innovation, Exchange and Research (GRAZIER)

Conviviality Network for Nature, Environment, and Communities Together (CONNECT)

Impact evaluation of UNEP’s Tide Turners Plastic Challenge

State of academic integrity and regulatory compliance in India

Publications

Teaching

Saloni teaches and coordinates several core and elective courses. She also actively mentors MSc and PhD students.

Number of MSc students supervising/supervised: 8

Number of PhD students: 1

Conservation Issues and Concerns (Core course for MSc Students, 1st Semester)

Co-designed and co-taught with Sharadchandra Lele and Siddhartha Krishnan

Course coordinator in 2024

The course investigates the history, definition, scope, values and ethics underpinning that term, explores its relationship with other environmental concerns, the relationship of environmentalism with other societal goals, and the challenges of effective environmental conservation in democratic societies. At the end of the course, students should be able to describe the different cultural conceptions of what is to be conserved and why, and coherently articulate the challenges to effective and ethical conservation in a democracy.

Sociology (Core course for MSc and PhD students, 1st Semester)

Co-designed and co-taught with Siddhartha Krishnan (with contributions from Kiran Asher)

Course coordinator in 2023

The course trains students to use the sociological imagination to locate their thoughts and actions related to environment and development in the wider political, economic and cultural structures, and those of other environmental stakeholders, in general. In doing so, students get to discuss the stratified nature of traditional (Indian) society, its encounter with modernity, and how class, caste and gender locations condition experience of environmental goods and bads.

Human-Wildlife Interactions in a Rapidly Changing World (Elective for MSc students, 3rd Semester)

Co-designed and co-taught with Asmita Sengupta (with contributions from several Faculty)

The course introduces students to human-wildlife interactions in its many forms and the various facets thereof. Drawing from the natural and the social sciences – both in terms of theory and practice, and through case studies and debates, the course will examine how human-wildlife interactions are shaped across different cultures, contexts and intersectionalities. It will enable students to assess the implications of different kinds of interactions for human lives, animal lives and the ecosystems that we are a part of.

Outreach

Current engagements

On the Board of Society for Conservation Biology’s Social Science Working Group since June 2024: Co-chair of the committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) and contributions to the Strategic Plan. Involved with the first virtual Conservation Social Science conference held on 20-21st November 2024.
Part of the Methods Expert Group at Eklipse: Eklipse is a not-for-profit working on science-policy interface in Europe. She offers technical/methodological expertise when requests are raised.
Contributor to India’s National Wildlife Health Policy led by Central Zoo Authority.

Led by Saloni Bhatia and Pallavi Verma-Patil, the Intersectionality Series at ATREE has been running since February 2024. It is aimed at fostering open and honest discussions about diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility in the context of conservation/ environment. This series examines how marginalized identities—related to gender, sexuality, caste, class, disability, language, and more—interact and intersect with each other, as well as with individual and environmental well-being. So far, the topics covered include conservation surveillance technologies, autism and climate change, the experiences of Dalit waste workers in Bangalore, women in the workforce, the impact of sun and sand tourism on local fisherfolk, the political ecology of the Himalayas, the social implications of dam removal on tribal communities, and human-gibbon relations in Assam, film screening of ‘On the Brink Season 2-Gharial’. Inspired by these events, ATREE also celebrated Queer Week in November 2024.
Mentor with the Snow Leopard Network Mentorship Programme 2025. The goal of the program is to facilitate knowledge exchange and provide guidance and support to early career individuals in the Network.
Mentor with BeFantastic’s Kaleidoscopic Fields Fellowship 2025 for Art+Science+Tech projects focusing on Ladakh.
External member on the Research Ethics Committee of the Nature Conservation Foundation since November 2024

Past engagements

Panelist for a dialogue on conservation and socio-ecologies of the Trans-Himalaya and the coasts, as part of an exhibition titled ‘A Desert Meets a Forest: Contemporary Art from the Himalayas’, curated by Latika Gupta for Arthshila Goa, Goa, March 2025.
Panelist at a session academic landscape and opportunities to study pastoralism, organised by the Indian Pastoral Network, at Living Lightly 2025: Futures of Grasslands and Pastoralism in India, Bangalore, February 2025.
Panelist at the session on ‘Failure in Translating Biodiversity Policy into Localized Action’ at Impact Failure conference, organised by SELCO, Bangalore, February 2025.
Work featured at a photo exhibition on ‘Snow Leopard: The Ambassador of Asia’s High Mountain Ecosystems’ at the UN Headquarters, New York, December 2024.
Mentor and co-organiser of an audio-visual media workshop on ecological and material heritage and storytelling for young Ladakhi artists, in partnership with Achi Association India, Ladakh, October 2024.

Curator of an exhibition on human-bear interactions titled ‘Drenmo Odyssey: A Mother’s Tale’ by Karamjeet Singh, organised by Achi Association India, Ladakh, June 2024.

Talk on ‘Human-wildlife Entanglements in Ladakh’ at Chansa Talks, organised by Achi Association India, Ladakh, June 2024.
Co-organiser of a talk series titled ‘Chansa Talks’ on themes related to pastoralism, multispecies wellbeing and ecology, in partnership with Achi Association India, at Palay House, Ladakh, June-July 2024.

Panelist at the Special Interest Group on ‘Integrating Formal and Experiential Knowledges for Better Ecological Research’, at Indian Wildlife Ecology Conference, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, June 2024.

Talk on ‘Human-wildlife interactions and the issue of sustainable development in Ladakh’ for CEPT University, organised by Field Architects and Achi Association India, May 2024.

Panelist for a discussion on ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Conservation Social Science in Asia’, organised by SCB’s Social Science Working Group, May 2024.
Discussant at a seminar on ‘The Conservation of Material and Ecological Heritage in the Trans Himalayas’, organised by Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (SNIoE), and Karakoram Collectives, Greater Noida, March 2024.
Participant at the Network for Advanced Study of China (NASC) Fellowship Conference, organised by Takshashila Institution, Bangalore, March 2024.

Public talk on ‘Reading Keats to Chasing Beasts – My motley journey into nature conservation’, SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai, India, March 2024.

Work featured at a photo exhibition on ‘Exploring Wildlife Through Ladakhi Folklore’, curated by the Nature Conservation Foundation, Ladakh, February 2024.
Participant at the seminar on ‘Academic Integrity and Regulatory Compliance in Life Sciences’, organised by InSTEM, Bangalore, February 2024.
Panelist at a webinar on women and girls in science, ATREE, India, February 2024.

Co-organiser of the national workshop on community conserved areas in India, by ICCA-Kalpavriksh and ATREE, Bangalore, December 2023.
Speaker at the seminar on ‘Methods and Networks in Environmental Humanities in India’, by MAHE, Manipal, November 2023.
Discussant for a talk on ‘Cultural Relationships with Snow Leopards’, organised by the Snow Leopard Network, September 2023.
Designed and led a workshop on ‘Understanding the Wolf through Cultural Narratives’, at Wolves Across Borders, May 2023.
Talk on ‘Examining Values Associated with Large Mammals in Trans-Himalayan Folklore’, at Human Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Conference, Oxford, March 2023.
Participant at the ‘Gender and Livestock’ seminar, organised by Anthra and the Indian Pastoral Network, Pune, March 2023.