Kulesh Bhandari | Biodiversity Researcher

About Me

I am Kulesh Bhandari, an independent biodiversity researcher and wildlife conservationist based in Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, India. The sal-dominated ridges and granite outcrops of the Santhal Pargana uplands form the empirical foundation of my research.

My work focuses on the fauna of rock–forest ecotones in eastern India — the faunal assemblages and thermal refugia of granite outcrops, and flying fox roost ecology across the region's upland landscapes. I am currently extending this work toward mammal survey in the region's forest mosaics. I combine field-based survey with the ecological knowledge of the communities I work alongside, documenting species and habitats that remain poorly recorded in eastern India.

I am the founder and curator of the Biodiversity Atlas of Santhal Pargana, a regional open-access initiative comprising over 14,000 observations documenting more than 2,700 species. I am a Member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (2026–2029) and the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.