Anuja Krishna is an undergraduate student pursuing a BSc Honours degree in Environmental Science and Sustainability. She has chosen Biodiversity Conservation as her Occupational Minor. 

Her academic interests centre on ecological conservation, biodiversity protection, and community-engaged environmental research. A dedicated environmentalist, she has complemented her coursework with hands-on conservation experiences. She participated in Zoo Ambassador sessions at Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Chennai, engaging in learning and outreach focused on endangered species such as tigers and lion-tailed macaques. 

She also gained practical exposure to animal care and conservation practices through a programme at the Madras Crocodile Bank, strengthening her interest in applied conservation and public education.

For this fellowship, Anuja is proposing a project to undertake a research project on the pollution of the Kosasthalaiyar river in Chennai, examining its ecological degradation alongside the socio-economic impacts on dependent communities.

Her project integrates water quality analysis, biodiversity assessments, and community interactions, with the aim of producing an evidence-based report that can support sustainable river management and policy-relevant conservation efforts. Through this work, she seeks to explore how scientific research can inform local environmental action and equitable resource management.

Through this fellowship, she seeks to deepen her research exposure, mentorship, and interdisciplinary understanding to pursue a career in conservation science and sustainability practice.

Shivaani is an undergraduate student pursuing a BSc Honours degree in Environmental Science and Sustainability. She has chosen Biodiversity Conservation as her Occupational Minor.

Keen on learning new things, she actively engages in environmental research. She received the Sahyadri Young Ecologist Award, 2024 and was also a semi-finalist at the International Research Olympiad, 2024. During her free time, you can find her playing the keyboard, reading books, playing sports or spending time in nature.

As a member of the university’s ESS club, she helps in organising club events, seminars, nature walks among other things. She is extremely passionate about night skies. As an advocate with DarkSky International, she has conducted awareness sessions across schools and communities on light pollution and its environmental impact. 

She aspires to work on recognising light pollution as a critical environmental issue and contribute towards creating policies to address them by combining her research efforts.

Shivaani has worked on environmental data analysis and mapping with QGIS and was a part of a biodiversity data project involved in understanding Open Natural Ecosystems in Bengaluru, which led to a published article.

Having grown up in Bengaluru under severely light polluted skies, her project addresses light pollution through awareness, citizen science, and community-based action, aiming to promote environment-friendly lighting practices and allow people to connect with the night-time environment.

Vanya Hegde is an undergraduate student pursuing a BSc Honours degree in Environmental Science and Sustainability. 

She has worked in ecological research across the Western Ghats and in GIS studies in the Western Himalayas, with projects on wildfire dynamics, microclimate, thermal tolerance of plant species, and ecotourism valuation. 

Her work integrates field ecology, GIS tools, R programming, and science communication to explore how we can connect sustainability and society. She has presented her research at national and international conferences and has published articles on biodiversity and conservation in platforms including Current Conservation. She has also worked on Myristica swamps as an intern at the Mountains of Life festival.

She has been recognised by Global Citizen as one of the five young women fighting climate change. She blogs on climate change, sustainability, and ecology, which has reached more than 8,000 people. She is also an avid reader and photographer, who has taken part in multiple club activities like the ESS club and the photography club at the University.

Her project examines traditional tuber-based food systems as scalable models for climate-resilient agriculture. By analysing cultivation practices, storage strategies, and women led knowledge systems, she is developing a framework that demonstrates how low-input, biodiversity- supporting crops can strengthen food security and inform regenerative, climate adaptive food transitions across vulnerable regions.