Current Lab – Behavioural Ecology Lab

Current Lab

We are a group of enthusiastic people who are fascinated by the diversity of life, in form and function. This fascination in combination with our passion for basic science has brought us together here. People in the lab have diverse interests under the overarching theme of behavioural ecology.

Principal Investigator

Manjari with the youngest member of lab!

Appointments and Academic History

2020: Associate Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, IISER Mohali.
2013 - 2020: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, IISER Mohali.
2013: NSF postdoctoral fellowship* at Syracuse University, USA (*declined).
2013 - 2016: Adjunct Faculty, School of Natural Sciences and Engineering, NIAS, Bangalore.
2011 - 2012: Post-doctoral intern, IEBES, University of Zurich.
2011: Visiting Postdoc, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol.
2010 - 2011: Research Associate, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
2004 - 2011: Ph.D. student, CES, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Baheerathan M.

Brief Bio

Baheerathan (aka Bahee) started his career as a bioengineer with a B.Tech (Biotechnology) degree at KCT, Coimbatore. He then pursued a Master's in Genomics at MKU, Madurai. For his Master's dissertation he studied the role of olfaction in the greater short-nosed fruit bat, under the guidance of Prof. G. Marimuthu, a pioneer in Indian Chiropterology. This kindled his interest in bats, sensory ecology and animal behaviour. Bahee then went on to do his Ph.D. with Prof. Hema Somanathan at IISER TVM. For his PhD he studied the visual ecology of three sympatric fruit bats using a combination of methods in ecology, neuroanatomy and behaviour. His PhD work resulted in several novel insights about fruit bat visual ecology. At BEL, Bahee will work on the movement ecology of birds and fruit bats in order to understand how behaviour is shaped by underlying movement patterns.

2023: IISER Mohali Postdoctoral Fellow, BEL, IISERM
2015-2023: Ph.D., IISER Thiruvananthapuram
2013-2015: M.Sc (Genomics), Madurai Kamaraj University
2008-2012: B.Tech (Biotechnology), Kumaraguru College of Technology

Ph.D. Students

Kanika Rajput (2020 - )

UGC Senior Research Fellow

Anway Sarkar (2021- )

CSIR Senior Research Fellow

Arusharka Bhattacharyya (2023 - )

CSIR Junior Research Fellow

Gaurav Singh (2020 - )

IISERM Direct PhD student

Harish Kumar (2022 - )

UGC Junior Research Fellow

Aryjit Satapathy (2023 - )

UGC Junior Research Fellow

Kanika, Anway, Harish and Aryjit are all working on various aspects of acoustic communication and behavioural ecology of social babblers. Gaurav is working on soundscape ecology and passive acoustic monitoring. Arusharka is working on the imoact of infection on cricket behavioural ecology. All of them conduct extensive fieldwork to collect data and do extensive lab-based work.

Kanika is from Delhi and has a Masters in Environmental Science from Indraprastha Univ.

Gaurav is from Gurgaon and did an integrated BSMS (Physics) from IISER Mohali.

Anway is from Arunachal and did an integrated BSMS (Biology) from NISER.

Harish is from Haryana and has a Masters in Zoology from Kurukshetra Univ.

Arusharka is from West Bengal and has a Masters in Zoology with Entomology as his specializations Banaras Hindu University.

Aryjit is from Odisha and has a Masters in Zoology from the Central University of Kerala.

Master's thesis and Project student

Prabartak Majumder (MS thesis2024-2025)

Pryia Bhatt (DBT JRF)

Prabartak will be working with Dr. Maude Baldwin in MPI-BI, Seeweisen for his Master's thesis.

Priya is a DBT JRF at BEL. She completed her BSMS from IISER Mohali and is working on examining the impact of infection on cricket survival and sexually selected traits .