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Tarsh Thekaekara

MSc, University of Oxford

PhD, British Open University

I am 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 non-profit company) in 2015, and am affiliated with Dakshin Foundation and the National Centre for Biological Sciences. 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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