Alok Bang
Areas of Interest & Expertise
- Biological invasions
- Biodiversity science and policy
- Conservation biology
- Evolutionary biology and sociobiology
- Animal behaviour and behavioural ecology
- Population biology
- Community conservation practices
- Scientific leadership in the global south
Biography
Alok Bang is an ecologist and an evolutionary biologist.
He has worked on fundamental research questions related to animal behaviour, population biology and evolutionary biology. Concurrently, he has worked on applied research questions related to biodiversity conservation and biological invasions. This approach has yielded an interdisciplinary research programme at the crossroads of science and society, encompassing questions ranging from single-species studies to macroecological studies on a global scale.
He has worked in research organisations and has alongside worked with grassroots NGOs. He considers this balance in working environments as a huge asset of his academic life as it has rooted his academic research within larger social realities and needs.
His work interests and experience include:
- Cooperation and conflict in insect societies: For his PhD at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, he investigated the evolution of sociality. Specifically, he investigated dominance and reproductive hierarchies, reproductive succession, and the role of social experiences in shaping animal personalities in paper wasp societies.
- Allee effects: For his postdoctoral research at the Université Paris-Sud (now, Université Paris-Saclay), Orsay, he investigated if interspecific competition from native species can generate Allee effects in the globally invasive Argentine ants.
- Community-rooted conservation: His postdoctoral work at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, included being the research coordinator of Maharashtra Gene Bank Programme, which involved documentation, validation and propagation of community-led conservation practices in Maharashtra.
- Biological invasions: His latest research involves studying ecological and socio-economic impacts of invasive alien species globally. While economic development and environmental conservation are often seen as two opposing sides of the spectrum, he believes that integrating a socioeconomic lens in environmental conservation would raise awareness about the connectedness between nature and society.
Alok will be teaching ecology, evolutionary biology, and biodiversity and conservation at Azim Premji University.
Alok’s publications may be accessed here, https://orcid.org/0000 – 0002-8517 – 7109
If not a researcher, he would have tried his hand at music or badminton as a career, which he now pursues as hobbies.
Courses
History of Biology
Understanding the evolution of biological thought and its connection with society and everyday life.
The Measure of India (Understanding India 3)
The Measure of India
Restoration and rewilding
Introduction to restoration and rewilding
Seminar
Emphasises the integrative nature of Modern Biology.
Animal Behaviour
Understanding behaviour of animals from an evolutionary and ecological perspective.
Evolutionary Biology
Examines patterns and processes by which evolution occurs and shapes life forms.
Introduction to Organisms and Ecosystems
Focuses on the organismal, and ecosystem level understanding of Biology.
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Out of Control: India’s Bioinvasion Dilemma and the Way Out
People will understand the invasive species crisis much better when they know what it is costing them, says ecologist Alok Bang.
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People, Plants and Places: A Summer of Ethnobotany
A simple exercise of documenting local vegetation during the summer holidays transformed how three budding biologists view their hometowns, writes Nandita Jayaraj.
Publications
Selected journal articles
- Courchamp, F., Klippel, G., Angulo, E., Arbieu, U., Bang, A., Bojko, J., … & Bradshaw, C. J. (2026). Quantifying the magnitude of biological invasions using total biomass. BioScience, 76(5), 429 – 439. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf195
- Carneiro, L., Pincheira-Donoso, D., Leroy, B., Bertolino, S., Camacho-Cervantes, M., Cuthbert, R. N., Bang, A., Catford, J. A., South, J., Cooke, S. J., Angulo, E., & Courchamp, F. (2026). Expanding invasive species impact assessments to the ecosystem level with EEICAT. PLoS biology, 24(3), e3003665. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003665
- Bang, A. (2025). Species Without Borders: Biological Invasions in the Anthropocene. Resonance, 30(11), 1505 – 1522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-025‑1894‑y
- Bradshaw, C. J., Hulme, P. E., Hudgins, E. J., Leung, B., Kourantidou, M., Courtois, P., Turbelin, A. J., MdDermott, S. M., Lee, K., Ahmed, D. A., Latombe, G., Bang, A., Bodey, T. W., Haubrock, P. J., Saltré, F., & Courchamp, F. (2024). Damage costs from invasive species exceed management expenditure in nations experiencing lower economic activity. Ecological Economics, 220, 108166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108166
- Bang, A., Ranganath, H. A., & Gadagkar, R. (2024). A crazy ants’ crazy form of reproduction: Causes and consequences. Journal of Biosciences, 49(1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-023 – 00404‑9
- Heringer, G., Fernandez, R. D., Bang, A., Cordonnier, M., Novoa, A., Lenzner, B., … & Courchamp, F. (2024). Economic costs of invasive non-native species in urban areas: An underexplored financial drain. Science of the Total Environment, 917, 170336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170336
- Carneiro, L., Hulme, P. E., Cuthbert, R. N., Kourantidou, M., Bang, A., Haubrock, P. J., … & Courchamp, F. (2024). Benefits do not balance costs of biological invasions. BioScience, 74(5), 340 – 344. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae010
- Bang., A., & Ray-Mukherjee, J. (2023) Land and Ecosystem Restoration: Working with Communities, Social, Economic and Institutional Aspects. https://g20land.org/discussion_papers/land-and-ecosystem-restoration-working-with-communities-social-economic-and-institutional-aspects/
- Bodey, T. W., Angulo, E., Bang, A., Bellard, C., Fantle‐Lepczyk, J., Lenzner, B., … & Courchamp, F. (2023). Economic costs of protecting islands from invasive alien species. Conservation Biology, 37(2), e14034. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14034
- Hudgins, E. J., Cuthbert, R. N., Haubrock, P. J., Taylor, N. G., Kourantidou, M., Nguyen, D., Bang, A.,… & Courchamp, F. (2023). Unevenly distributed biological invasion costs among origin and recipient regions. Nature Sustainability, 6(9), 1113 – 1124. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023 – 01124‑6
- Ahmed, D. A., Haubrock, P. J., Cuthbert, R. N., Bang, A., Soto, I., Balzani, P., … & Courchamp, F. (2023). Recent advances in availability and synthesis of the economic costs of biological invasions. BioScience, 73(8), 560 – 574. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad060
- Bang, A., Cuthbert, R. N., Haubrock, P. J., Fernandez, R. D., Moodley, D., Diagne, C., … & Courchamp, F. (2022). Massive economic costs of biological invasions despite widespread knowledge gaps: a dual setback for India. Biological Invasions, 24, 2017 – 2039. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022 – 02780‑z
- Bang, A., & Courchamp, F. (2021). Industrial rearing of edible insects could be a major source of new biological invasions. Ecology Letters, 24(3), 393 – 397. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13646
- Bang, A., & Khadakkar, S. (2020). Biodiversity conservation during a global crisis: Consequences and the way forward. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(48), 29995 – 29999. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2021460117
- Bang, A., & Gadagkar, R. (2012). Reproductive queue without overt conflict in the primitively eusocial wasp Ropalidia marginata. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(36), 14494 – 14499. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1212698109
- Bang, A., Deshpande, S., Sumana, A., & Gadagkar, R. (2010). Choosing an appropriate index to construct dominance hierarchies in animal societies: a comparison of three indices. Animal Behaviour, 79(3), 631 – 636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.12.009
Books
- Sen, R., & Bang, A. (Eds.) (2013). But to Reason Why: Celebrating a Life in Science.
Chapters in edited book
- Bang, A. (2013). Learning to Think and Other Lessons. In: But to Reason Why: Celebrating a Life in Science.
Popular science articles
- Leroy, B., Diagne, C., Angulo, E. Ballesteros-Mejia, L., Adamjy, T., et al. (2021). Global costs of biological invasions: living figure. https://borisleroy.com/invacost/invacost_livingfigure.html
- Ojas, S. V., Bang, A., & Watve, M. (2017, October 31). India’s milk boom would have been same even without exotic breeds. Down to Earth, 26(11), 56 – 57. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/milk-a-tale-of-two-species-58919
- Bang, A. (2016, August 25). The winner takes it all, the loser standing small! Insectes Sociaux. https://insectessociaux.com/2016/08/25/the-winner-takes-it-all-the-loser-standing-small/
Videos
- Colonialism to Climate Crisis: India’s Forgotten Environmental Story | Shekhar Pathak and Alok Bang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nSSoHh936s
- Know Our Occupational Tracks | Undergraduate Programme | Alok Bang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZiQS1DIva0
- Know Your Faculty | Alok Bang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2jlAVMz3vg