An ecologist with a binocular and a computer.

Hi! My name is Shivam Shrotriya, and I am an ecologist with about 13 years of experience in conservation and ecology research. I am particularly passionate about the use of modern technology, such as AI, in conservation efforts and have extensive experience in data analyses and ecological modelling.

I hold a PhD on the ecology of Himalayan wolves, where I studied its feeding patterns, prey distribution and availability, dietary competition, human conflict and wolf distribution drivers. Before that, I received my Master’s degree in Wildlife Science, where I studied the relationship between the morphology and biodiversity of caves. After my Master’s degree, I was briefly associated with the field research team assessing potential habitats for the reintroduction of cheetahs in India. I worked at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) for the “Ecology and Conservation of the Himalayan Wolf” project from 2010 to 2018. For a short while in 2018, I also participated in a biodiversity survey in four protected areas of Himachal Pradesh.

Later, I also had the opportunity to work on a conservation-focused road ecology project in Maharashtra, India from 2018 to 2022. The project aimed to provide wildlife connectivity on a newly developing high-speed roadway connecting two major cities. In this role, I provided ecological input by assessing the impacts of the road, identifying wildlife crossing hotspots, and designing mitigation plans and structures.

In addition to these projects, I helped WII to collaborated with Microsoft on the development of AI tools for conservation research. Microsoft’s “MegaDetector” automatically segregates animal images in camera trap datasets. I led the development of a machine learning AI tool called “SpSeg” for species-level classification of animal images tagged by “MegaDetector”. I also generated a grant for WII from Microsoft’s “AI for Earth” program to develop “SpSeg”. At the moment, the tool is trained for the Central Indian landscape and has achieved 89% accuracy in species-level classification.

Currently, I am working as a Project Scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India, where I am helping to implement wildlife mitigation measures on an industrial infrastructure development.

My skills

skills

Professional Experience

  1. Project Scientist (Ecology)- Project: ‘Mitigation measures for Transportation network and mining activities for Dinesh open cast project, Umred, Maharashtra’. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India, September 2022 - present.
  2. Project Scientist (Ecology)- Project: ‘Assessment of impacts of the proposed Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway, Maharashtra, Samriddhi Corridor on wildlife values and measures recommended to mitigate negative impacts’. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India, July 2018 - July 2022
  3. Senior Project Biologist- Project: ‘Assessment of biodiversity for effective management and evaluation of eco-tourism potential of four protected areas in Himachal Pradesh, India’. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India, May 2018 - July 2018
  4. Senior Research Fellow- Project: ‘Ecology and Conservation of Himalayan Wolf’. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India, August 2010 - March 2018
  5. Field researcher- Project: ‘Assessing the potential for reintroducing the Cheetah in India’. Wildlife Trust of India, Noida, India, December 2009 - August 2010

Education

  1. PhD in Wildlife Science, Thesis: ‘Status, distribution and foraging ecology of wolf in the north-western Himalayan landscape, India’, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujrat, India. (2022)
  2. Master in Science (Wildlife Science), Dissertation: ‘Cave ecosystem as function of cave morphology with special reference to Kotumsar and Dandak caves in Kanger Valley National Park, Bastar, Chhatisgarh, India’, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. (2009)
  3. Bachelor in Science, Subjects: Zoology, Botany and Chemistry, Kumaon University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. (2007)

Academic reviews

I’ve served as an academic reviewer to several journals:

(1) Ambient Science, (2) Mitochondrial Genetics-B, (3) Proceedings of the Zoological Society, India, (4) Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, and (5) Plos One

and conferences:

(1) International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB) 2019 conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia organised by Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), (2) ICCB 2021, Kigali, Rwanda organised by SCB

CV

For more details download the recent version of CV in PDF here