Schedule

Day 1: Monday, September 28th 2026

Time / Code Event Speaker / Resource Person Venue
08:00 - 09:00 Registrations & Breakfast J N TATA - Lobby & Dining Hall
09:00 - 09:20 Welcome J N TATA Auditorium
09:20 - 10:20 Technical Plenary 1 - Dr R. Uma Shaanker
Who Is the Plant? Rethinking Plant Ecology in a Microbial World
J N TATA Auditorium
10:20 - 11:00 Session on POSH J N TATA Auditorium
11:00 - 11:20 Break
11:20 - 13:00 Student Talks: Session 1 J N TATA Auditorium
11:20 - 11:40 Elephants Beyond Protected Areas: Disentangling Core and Flexible Drivers of Habitat Selection in the Human-Dominated Landscape of Golaghat Northeast India Amlanaditya Goswami
11:40 - 12:00 Whose benefit whose burden? Perceived ecosystem services and disservices among Soliga adivasi communities in BRT Tiger Reserve Deepanjana Saha
12:00 - 12:20 Plasticity in rapidly changing nightscapes: Effects of Artificial Light at Night on behaviour morphology and performance in chameleons from Madagascar Udita Bansal
12:20 - 12:40 Comparative Evaluation of QSM Algorithms for Aboveground Biomass Estimation in Tropical Forests Using Terrestrial LiDAR Marc Aurel Kamden Simo
12:40 - 13:00 Socio-Ecological and Economic Valuation of the Greater Hesaraghatta Grassland Ecosystem: Integrating Traditional Stewardship with Conservation Reserve Management Ashwin A
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch J N TATA - Dining Hall
14:00 - 16:30 Short Workshops Resource Person Venue
S1 Research with fishers and other ecological knowledge holders Andrea Phillott, Chetan Rao Seminar Hall A
S2 Nature Guide's Toolkit: Observation, Interpretation & Storytelling Aksheeta Mahapatra, Rahuldev Rajguru, Guru Prasad KR CES Seminar Hall
S3 Crafting Conservation Careers: The good, the bad, the ugly Pankaj Koparde, Anushka Rege Seminar Hall C
S4 Tree Identification and Phenology: Basic Workshop Sayee Girdhari, Rishika K Seminar Hall B
S5 Study design in ecology and conservation Kavita Isvaran CES Conference Hall
S6 Beyond Words: Using Dance, Movement, and Expression for Science Communication Priya Ranganathan J N Tata Auditorium
S7 Making field-data collection easier: An Intro to Epicollect and ODK Sanath R M, Abhirami C CES Lotka Voltera
S8 Tangled Data, Tangible Tales: Ecological Data Art Sambita Modak, Chandrima Home CES Class Room
S9 Games for Nature & Conservation Peeyush Sekhsaria, Priti Bangal, Taniya Buragohain, Dikshya Bharadwaj Biochemistry Lecture Hall
S10 Using behavioural science and design thinking for conservation action Arjun Kamdar, Tejaswini Nagesh CES Reading Room
16:30 - 16:50 Tea Break J N TATA - Dining Hall
16:50 - 18:00 Student Posters - Session 1 J N TATA - Lobby
18:00 - 19:00 Popular Open Plenary 1 - Dr N. S. K. Harsh
Welcome to the Beautiful and Mysterious World of Fungi aka Mushrooms
J N TATA Auditorium
19:00 - 20:00 Ice breaker Dinner

Day 2: Tuesday, September 29th 2026

Time / Code Event Speaker / Resource Person Venue
07:00 - 08:00 Bird Walk / Tree Walk IISc Campus
08:00 - 09:00 Registrations & Breakfast J N TATA - Lobby & Dining Hall
09:00 - 11:30 Long Workshops - 10 to 12 workshops - 6hrs each approx. Resource Person Venue
L1 Studying animal behaviour and its role in conservation Devica Ranade, Ishika Ramakrishna, Samira Agnihotri Seminar Hall A
L2 Plant Identification: Advanced Workshop Sayee Girdhari, Arun Kumar N, Bibidishananda Basu, Gauravya Mohan, Rishika K Seminar Hall B
L3 Understanding the nuances of Fellowships and Grants writing in Ecology and Conservation Sabuj Bhattacharyya, Monica Kaushik, Chandrima Home J N Tata Auditorium
L4 Qualitative Research in Conservation: Power, Positionality and Practice Budhaditya Das, Venkat Ramanujam Seminar Hall C
L5 Introduction to GIS & Mapping using QGIS Biswa Bhusana Mahapatra CES Conference Hall
L6 Thorny subjects: Conducting interviews on conservation-induced conflict Madhuri Ramesh, Sagarika Phalke CES Reading Room
L7 Crafting Narratives for a Fragile World Megha Moorthy, Radhika Raj CES Class Room
L8 Analysing count data – fitting and interpreting Generalised Linear Models (GLMs) Kavita Isvaran CES Seminar Hall
L9 Building Low-Cost Ecological Monitoring Tools: From Sensors to Field Deployment Rakesh Khanna A
L10 You have data. What now? Statistical thinking, R programming and making meaning from data in conservation science Akshay Surendra, Samarth Jain, Akhila CK CES Lotka Voltera
11:30 - 11:50 Tea Break
11:50 - 13:00 Long Workshops
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch J N TATA - Dining Hall
14:00 - 16:30 Long Workshops
16:30 - 16:50 Tea Break
16:50 - 18:00 Who's Who in Conservation - Session 1 J N TATA - Lobby
18:00 - 19:00 Careers in Conservation - Panel Discussion JN Tata Auditorium
19:00 - 20:00 Loris Walk / Nocturnal Species Walk IISc Campus
19:00 - 20:00 Volunteers' dinner

Day 3: Wednesday, September 30th 2026

Time / Code Event Speaker / Resource Person Venue
07:00 - 08:00 Bird Walk / Tree Walk IISc Campus
08:00 - 09:00 Registrations & Breakfast J N TATA - Lobby & Dining Hall
09:00 - 10:00 Technical Plenary 2 - Daniel Fernando
From Data to Decisions: Science, Trade, and the Politics of Saving Sharks and Rays
J N TATA Auditorium
10:00 - 12:00 Student Talks - Session 2
10:00 - 10:20 Habitat features driving the endemic forest owlets occupancy and reproduction success in the northern Western Ghats. Kaushalkumar Patel J N TATA Auditorium
10:20 - 10:40 Human–Wildlife Coexistence and Gendered Conservation Practices in the East Kolkata Wetlands Sayani Barman J N TATA Auditorium
10:40 - 11:00 Hidden Endemism in Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands: Conservation Implications from a Phylogenetic Study of Rhene Thorell 1869 Kalpani Heath J N TATA Auditorium
11:00 - 11:20 Break
11:20 - 11:40 Assessment of the possible causes of green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) egg failure in Tiwi, south coast of Kenya Sandra Keter J N TATA Auditorium
11:40 - 12:00 Human-Snake Conflict in Agricultural Landscapes of Hunsur Karnataka: Patterns Perceptions and Mitigation Strategies Poorvi J N TATA Auditorium
12:00 - 12:15 Group Photo J N TATA - Dining Hall
12:15 - 13:00 Who's Who in Conservation - Session 2 J N TATA - Lobby
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch J N TATA - Dining Hall
14:00 - 16:30 Short Workshops Resource Person Venue
S1 The Right Plot says a Lot: How to Visualise Results Effectively Arpit Omprakash, Gokul Valiya Parambil CES Class Room
S2 Mycelial Entanglements: Through Waste, Words and Woods Biplab Mahato, Milla den Hollander, Siddharth Fitwe, Nitha Fathima Nazir CES Seminar Hall
S3 Using eBird Data for Ecology and Conservation Faizee Ali Khan, Alen Alex, Zeba Madani CES Lotka Voltera
S4 Making friends with R: a beginner's workshop for ecologists and conservationists Deyatima Ghosh, Sruthi Unnikrishnan CES Reading Room
S5 The Knowledge of Nature, and the Nature of Knowledge - Rethinking Knowledge Systems in Conservation Science Harshad Sambamurthy CES Conference Hall
S6 Make your own Protected Area Update Pankaj Sekhsaria, Reshma Jathar Seminar Hall B
S7 No Boat, No Problem: a practical approach to designing marine field research under constraints Bharat Ahuja, Titus Immanuel J N Tata Auditorium
S8 Messy field data to elegant graphs – basics of cleaning, summarising and plotting data using tidyverse in R Arpitha Jayanth, Aparna Krishnan Biochemistry Lecture Hall
S9 Designing Ecological Restoration: From Principles to Practice Himani Sharma, Satish Kumar Sharma Seminar Hall A
S10 Bat acoustic data recording, processing, and analyses: new approaches and automation Kadambari Deshpande, Vedant Barje Seminar Hall C
16:30 - 16:50 Tea Break J N TATA - Dining Hall
16:50 - 18:00 Student Posters: Session 2 J N TATA - Lobby
18:00 - 19:00 Popular Open Plenary 2 - Dr Divya Vasudev
Elephants in our backyard: conservation dreams and lived realities
J N TATA Auditorium
Break
19:15 - 20:15 Live Performance JN Tata Auditorium
20:15 - 20:30 Volunteers' dinner

Day 4: Thursday, October 1st 2026

Time / Code Event Speaker / Resource Person Venue
07:00 - 08:00 Bird Walk / Tree Walk IISc Campus
08:00 - 09:00 Registrations & Breakfast J N TATA - Lobby & Dining Hall
09:00 - 10:00 Technical Plenary 3 - Dr Devapriya Chattopadhyay
Sea of change: Marine biodiversity from deep past to uncertain future
J N TATA Auditorium
10:00 - 12:00 Student Talks - Session 3 J N TATA Auditorium
10:00 - 10:20 Spatial and temporal partitioning between leopards and pilgrims in a shared landscape of Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam Area Andhra Pradesh. Ankita Sharma
10:20 - 10:40 A Safe Haven at Night: Is Our Insect Conservation Model Going in Right Direction? Rittika Roy
10:40 - 11:00 Beyond tree planting: A Decision framework for restoring Myristica swamps using ecohydrological thresholds and socio-ecological insights Priya Ranganathan
11:00 - 11:20 Break
11:20 - 11:40 Metabarcoding Insights into Coral Bacterial Community Structure Across Bleaching States and Restoration Strategies in Shimoni Kenya Salome Chemutai
11:40 - 12:00 Understanding the impact of climate change on forest regeneration: how life-history traits mediate seedling response to drought stress Gayathri M
12:00 - 13:00 Birds of A Feather: Themed Networking Session J N TATA Premises
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch J N TATA - Dining Hall
14:00 - 16:30 Short Workshops Resource Person Venue
S1 Exploring Restoration Through the Lens of TGBS (The Global Biodiversity Standard) Isha Bhate, Milla den Hollander, Sanjana Radhakrishnan CES Class Room
S2 Inking Nature: A Nature Journaling Workshop Sambita Modak J N Tata Auditorium
S3 Environmental Theatre - Art based outreach to Schools, Colleges and Genral Public Vikram Sridhar J N Tata - Dining Lobby
S4 Necropsy as a tool for Conservation Suranjana Ganguly, Manya Kotera CES Reading Room
S5 Archives of Wildlife Past: Using historical records for ecological research Anjali Ramachandran, Nisha Bhakat Seminar Hall B
S6 Language and Ecology - Communicating Nature Through Local Languages P. Jeganathan, Pooja Pawar Seminar Hall A
S7 Living Landmarks: How Communities Shape and Are Shaped by Water Sneha Shahi, Vidhya Vigashini, Aayush Vasava CES Conference Hall
S8 Who Speaks for Fungi?: Fungal Ethics and Traditional Ecological Knowledge Prithvi, Malavika Bhatia CES Seminar Hall
S9 Messy field data to elegant graphs – basics of cleaning, summarising and plotting data using tidyverse in R Arpitha Jayanth, Aparna Krishnan CES Lotka Voltera
S10 Combating Cyber-enabled Wildlife Crime through Citizen Science Initiatives and Open Source Intelligence Monesh Singh Tomar, Shankar Prakash Biochemistry Lecture Hall
S11 Foundations of Conservation Education Priyanka Prakash, Vena Kapoor Seminar Hall C
16:30 - 16:50 Tea Break J N TATA - Dining Hall
16:50 - 18:00 Popular Open Plenary 3 - Mr S. Gopikrishna Warrier
Life is a story, why shouldn’t research be one too?
JN Tata Auditorium
18:00 - 19:00 Closing Ceremony JN Tata Auditorium