Vikram Aditya

Research interests: Tropical forest loss is causing a major decline in the diversity and populations of forest mammals globally. My PhD research is focused on studying the effects of landscape change and forest degradation on mammal distribution and diversity patterns in neglected forest landscapes, and identifying habitat relationships of mammals across the landscape. My study area is the northern Eastern Ghats hill region, spread across Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states. The Eastern Ghats landscape is a treasure trove of biodiversity. The contiguous forests of the northern Eastern Ghats offer some of the last habitats for 55 species of mammals, due to their relatively isolated nature, diverse habitat types and landscape features. However, the ecology of the region has been very sparsely studied. I am studying the impacts of landscape change on the diversity and distribution patterns of terrestrial, non-volant mammals in the tropical moist deciduous forests of Papikonda National Park, located in the northern Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. I am also identifying what factors have driven landscape change in this region over the past three decades and how it has impacted local communities.