Rohit Chakravarty

• Dr. rer. nat
• Project Manager at Nature Conservation Foundation

Mountains harbour one third of the world’s biodiversity and much of it is under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Yet, global assessments of the occurrence, and threat status of most mountain taxa, especially elusive ones are lacking, thereby hindering conservation and research prioritisation. In this study, we synthesise the distribution and cons...

As part of a faunal documentation work in Murlen National Park in Mizoram, two field surveys were conducted in the park area and its immediate periphery which resulted in capture of 39 individuals of bats. Based on these captures and a previous published record, 14 bat species belonging to nine genera and three families were recorded from the study...

As part of a faunal documentation work in Murlen National Park in Mizoram, two field surveys were conducted in the park area and its immediate periphery which resulted in capture of 39 individuals of bats. Based on these captures and a previous published record, 14 bat species belonging to nine genera and three families were recorded from the study...

The change in species richness along elevational gradients is a well‐known pattern in nature. Niche theory predicts that increasing species richness in assemblages can either lead to denser packing of niche space (‘niche packing’) or an expansion into its novel regions (‘niche expansion’). Traditionally, these scenarios have been studied using func...

The Maldives is a country made up entirely of coral atolls with very limited terrestrial habitat diversity and only one known resident bat species: the Maldivian Flying Fox, Pteropus medius ariel. Here we report the first confirmed record of any insectivorous bat from the Maldives: a single bat that flew on board a boat off Raa Atoll in the north o...

Species richness exhibits well-known patterns across elevational gradients in various taxa but represents only one aspect of quantifying biodiversity patterns. Functional and phylogenetic diversity have received much less attention, particularly for vertebrate taxa. There is still a limited understanding of how functional, phylogenetic and taxonomi...

A field reference guide to the 66 species of bats reported from the state of Meghalaya in India

Science communication for action and engagement – a proposal developed by the participants of the International Summer School “Communicating Science” 2021 in Berlin. This document was developed in five days by 50 young researchers from 26 countries. It offers recommendations for the future of science communication. In seven working groups, the part...

Out of the four Molossidae species from South Asia, the distribution of the European free-tailed bat, T. teniotis is most poorly known. This species has been occasionally reported from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and India; however, no records exist in Nepal. Here we report the first record of T. teniotis from Nepal and comment on its possible...

On the basis of two recently collected specimens from Meghalaya state in northeastern India, we report the occurrence of the monotypic vespertilionid genus Eudiscopus in the Indian Subcontinent. This taxon has so far been known only from a few localities in Southeast Asia. Our records also constitute a westward range extension of E. denticulus by a...

The Himalayan region is a global biodiversity hotspot that faces severe pressures from a growing human population, rapid urbanization and climate change. While taxa like birds, plants and butterflies have been effectively surveyed along vast elevational gradients, there is immense paucity in such data for nocturnal and secretive animals like bats....

Gene flow results from movement between populations, homogenising gene pools and impacting genetic variation and evolution. Growing evidence suggests that movement of individuals among populations may be more strongly determined by ecological traits. We compared genetic and morphometric differentiation in four species of bats — Eonycteris spelaea,...

The importance of community knowledge has long been recognised in ecological research and has also been adopted into systematic analytical frameworks. Ethno-ornithology provides insights into the interactions of the local community with the avifauna of the region, including its utilitarian and cultural values. The avifauna of the Andaman and Nicoba...

The distribution of the European Free-tailed Bat Tadarida teniotis extends from southern Europe and northern Africa to Myanmar. In India it is known only from Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala. This study records the species for the first time in the western Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Echolocation calls were found to be higher in frequency and sho...

The red-tailed trinket or red-tailed green ratsnake,Gonyosoma oxycephalum, is a colubrid snake species that is widely distributed in Southeast Asia (Wogan et al. 2012). In India, it has been recorded only from the Andaman Islands (Whitaker & Captain 2004), even though Wall (1906) also mentioned its occurrence in the Nicobar Islands and Eastern Hima...