Kulesh Bhandari

Researcher | Carnivores, bats & thermal refugia | Founder, Biodiversity Atlas of Santhal Pargana | IUCN SSC Member

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Large grey langur troops were once common across Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand. Now they have almost vanished.
In Dumka, I mostly see singles or small groups at village edges, not in the forest. Is grazing pushing them out?

https://t.co/sncvCHveQM

#Primates #wildlife #Jharkhand

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Happy to share that I’ve joined the IUCN SSC Hyaena Specialist Group as a Commission Member for 2026–2029. I study the striped hyaena outside protected areas in Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, where it lives close to people but is rarely recorded. #StripedHyaena #IUCN
@IUCNssc

[Neha Sinha @nehaa_sinha]

Cities cannot be for people alone.
They are also for rivers, hills, birds and bugs.

https://t.co/yFLLNSpZ2A

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Our citizen science atlas in Jharkhand has 17,000+ records. Butterflies everywhere. Mammals? Almost none.
Not because they aren't here — because they're hard to photograph. That's the gap we want to fill.
Record what you see
https://t.co/9KIeJOnqUW

#iNaturalist #Jharkhand

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

https://t.co/EnCGC4JNac

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

For Some, the Mountains Are a Destination. For Others, They Are Home. https://t.co/0ykKVei5qW

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

https://t.co/ayIrxsYtcz

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

My piece in The Wire Science, written with Ravindra Tripathi of Pennsylvania State University, on why wildlife research in India stops at the boundary of its protected areas and what that looks like from 240 field days outside them.
Santhal Hul Express has carried the news today

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Why India's Conservation Science Stops at the Boundary of its Protected Areas https://t.co/4sVeFCbrqU

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

A technical report: preliminary checklist of the birds of Godda district, Jharkhand. 102 species, 44 families.
Godda has ~12% forest cover vs 29.81% statewide, and no protected area. No checklist of its fauna existed until now.

https://t.co/nJREAzeaRn

https://t.co/TEyvHqjlQ2

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Two pieces of work out.
A paper on a cultivated Cereus hildmannianus in Jharkhand carrying both monstrose and crested growth on one plant — abnormalities that rarely coexist. Among the first records from eastern India.

Cactus and Succulent Journal 98(3): 234–237

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

India may hold the largest striped hyaena population of any country. It also has no official census for the species.
I work in a landscape in eastern India with no published hyaena record at all. Absence of records is not absence of the animal.
https://t.co/oN8DBoHLtj

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Fieldwork is mostly this sitting on a verandah, listening.
Asking whether people still see striped hyaena along the nullahs. How often, what time, when they last saw one.
No published record for this landscape. Before you survey a species, you establish it’s there.
#Fieldwork

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

No filters out here. Just rock, heat, and whatever the measurement says.
#Fieldwork

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

From flying fox roosts in Jharkhand to energy models at IISc the bridge is being built.
Wrapped up the Climate & Energy Policy Workshop at @IIScBangalore with @FutureEarth. Tribal wild food systems invisible in energy models that’s the gap. 🦇
#IISc #ClimateChange #Biodiversity

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

Day 1 at @IIScBangalore’s iconic Senate Hall. Attending the Climate Change & Energy Policy Workshop by Divecha Centre for Climate Change & @FutureEarth A flying fox researcher from Jharkhand learning, connecting, and expanding horizons. 🦇 #IISc #ClimateChange #Biodiversity

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

https://t.co/VtrWc3lmp3

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

New piece in @TheWireScience 🦇

The Bats That Conservation Forgot — on Indian Flying Foxes in Santhal Pargana, and why eastern India’s bat landscapes remain invisible to conservation science.

https://t.co/VBNocodkTS

#IndianFlyingFox #Jharkhand #BatConservations #Bats

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

@thewire_in https://t.co/qcwXA0pI8P

[Kulesh Bhandari @KuleshBhandari]

New piece in @TheWireScience 🦇

The Bats That Conservation Forgot — on Indian Flying Foxes in Santhal Pargana, and why eastern India’s bat landscapes remain invisible to conservation science.

https://t.co/VBNocodkTS

#IndianFlyingFox #Jharkhand #BatConservations #Bats