Assistant Curator: Tarun Karmakar

            Tarun Karmakar is interested in the field of natural history and taxonomy, focusing primarily on butterflies and moths. He has been actively involved in this field since 2008 and joined the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in 2012. His research interests have led him to conduct extensive fieldwork in the eastern Himalayas as well as some parts of the Western Ghats.

Honorary Curators

For Insects
Dr Pritha Dey & Tarun Karmakar

For Spiders

Rajesh Sanap

            Rajesh Sanap is an independent researcher working on the documentation of spiders (primarily mygalomorphs, like tarantulas and trapdoor spiders) and scorpions in India. He has been working on the taxonomy and diversity of Indian spiders and has described several new spider and scorpion species.

Rishikesh Tripathi

            Rishikesh Tripathi is an accomplished arachnologist based in India, specializing in the study of spiders, with a particular focus on Thar desert species. With a deep passion for research and discovery, Rishikesh has conducted extensive fieldwork across various regions of India, contributing valuable insights to the field. He has discovered 22 new species of spiders from India and made significant observations, including matriphagy in spiders, deformities, and more.

For Reptiles

Dr Ishan Agarwal

            Ishan Agarwal studies biogeography and systematics of South Asian squamates. A scientist with the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation (Mumbai), he has described 97 species of lizards and amphibians including 7 from Africa and one from Sri Lanka. Ishan did a postdoc at NCBS with Uma Ramakrishnan and has contributed hundreds of specimens to the research collections.

Akshay Khandekar

            Akshay Khandekar is a taxonomist, currently working with the Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Mumbai. He is primarily interested in taxonomy, systematics, and distributions of Squamates and Arachnids in the Indian subcontinent. He has described 80 new species from India which includes 76 species of lizards, two species of scorpions, and a single species of frog and a trapdoor spider. Read more about his work here: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=qBUoRCkAAAAJ&hl=en and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Akshay-Khandekar

For Birds and Mammals

Dr Vivek Ramachandran

            Vivek is an ecologist specialising in birds, small mammal ecology and biogeography. He played a key role in establishing the new Research collection at NCBS, where he served as Scientist in charge. He has deposited many specimens from the Western Ghats and the Himalayas. Currently, he works with the Wildlife Biology and Conservation, NCBS training and mentoring the next generation of wildlife biologists and conservationists.