Anuja Mital

• MSc Wildlife Biology
• Doctoral student at University of Georgia

Herpetology in India took off during the British colonial rule with the documentation of herpetofauna. Several studies have outlined the early history of Indian herpetology; however, few have traced the growth of this field since India's independence. We analyse trends in Indian herpetology focusing on taxa, subfields, and authorship over the last...

Ganges Softshell turtle (Nilssonia gangetica), a species listed as Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, A1d+2d, Ver 2.3), is generally associated with the major river systems of northern India. However, anecdotal records indicate this species has strong associations with community and temple ponds. Connectivity between rivers and these ponds play an import...

Freshwater turtles are keystone species and integral scavengers in aquatic ecosystems. So far no baseline information is available on their population status and monitoring techniques in the Ganges. This study aims to understand their basic ecology necessary for conservation with the following objectives: -Document presence and distribution of tur...

The Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra (IGB) basin is a global biodiversity hotspot for freshwater turtles, with >20 species known from the region. Despite research on taxonomy, captive breeding, and anthropogenic threats, there has been no investigation on how life-history traits and hydrological dynamics of floodplain rivers might affect the distribution an...

Freshwater turtles as keystone species of ecosystems are an integral part of complex food web structures in aquatic systems. Research on patterns of species richness in Turtle hotspots like North India is vital for our further understanding of the ecology and life history of understudied Indian species. This study was carried out to document commun...