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Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara

Coexistence Studies

Dr. Tarsh Thekaekara

Associate Professor

tarsh@tdu.edu.in

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Research Interests

Asian Elephants, Human-Elephant Interactions, Human-Wildlife Coexistence, Socioecological Systems, Community-based Lantana management

A researcher-conservationist interested in more human inclusive models of nature conservation. I co-founded The Shola Trust in 2008, The Real Elephant Collective (a social enterprise) in 2015. I completed by MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management from the University of Oxford, and my PhD on human-elephant Interactions at the British Open University, where I also a visiting fellow.

 

My area of research and intervention include work on Lantana camara, primarily looking at how communities can use the invasive plant in various ways. I am also particularly interested in how people and elephants share space, and finding ways to minimise negative interactions. Most of my work is in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (across Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka), but I'm also keen on promoting human-wildlife coexistence at more national and global scales.

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