In the ever-evolving landscape of biological sciences, the utilisation of genomic approaches has emerged as a transformative force in unravelling the complexities of animal diversity. By taking advantage of modern genomic approaches (NGS, WGS) and computational tools, I try to address several questions within the vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. My Ph.D. study focused on the identification and resolving of cryptic diversity and species complexes of the pest and tospovirus-transmitting insect group (Order: Thysanoptera) through an integrated approach of classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding.

As a postdoc, I carried out my research on vertebrate and invertebrate taxa from different geographic locations with multi-gene and computational approaches for better understanding of their genetic diversity, phylogenetic relationships, population genetics, and evolutionary linkages. 

I study Lantana camara, a perennial invasive shrub native to Central and South America. During the colonial era, this species was introduced into many countries across the globe, like India, Australia and South Africa as a garden plant. Although an ecologically important species in many countries, the species identity of invasive Lantana remains unclear. We are using genomics tools to understand the species identity and trace the invasion history of Lantana in India. Through this endeavour, we are trying to further our understanding of this ecologically important species.

I am interested in the studying the biology of wild and elusive species using DNA as well as chemicals. For my PhD thesis, I am studying how adaptive variation, specifically immune gene variation is structured in tigers. I mine through whole genome resequencing data to understand evolutionary forces that have shaped diversity at immune genes. I am reconstructing the pedigree of a population of tigers in North Western India to track inbreeding and inbreeding depression over generations. Lastly, I am trying to identify odor cues for age, sex and health in tiger scats and urine to design an easy to use and inexpensive monitoring technique. I received a National Geographic Society grant to carry out this work. 

I am interested in understanding the impacts of the human footprint on wildlife connectivity using genomic tools. I have been involved in multiple conservation-related projects on different species. For my PhD, I am looking at the effects of habitat fragmentation on genetic connectivity and population dynamics of multiple species of mammals particularly ungulates and meso-carnivores in the central Indian landscape.

I also intend to study the impact of changing land-use patterns and major highways bisecting the landscape on animal movement and gene flow and how it affects the spatial distribution of genetic variation. Simultaneously, I am developing new methods in conservation genomics that would enable the use of poor-quality, non-invasive samples for the generation of genomic data.