Growing up in a metropolitan city like Kolkata might not seem like the ideal setting for nurturing a person’s passion for the wilderness, but from a young age, I have been interested in the living world around me. My family and I would frequently visit Protected Areas and other wildernesses, which I would long to return even after returning home. My Masters dissertation dealt with the interactions between humans and small carnivores in the agriculture-dominated landscape of Howrah and Hooghly districts in West Bengal. I have previously worked in the Sundarbans and the mangrove dominated estuarine forests of the Godavari delta, where the palpable effects of climate change and allied factors upon ecological systems and people made a strong impression on me. I am therefore interested in studying the responses of ecological communities and processes to ongoing global change and its socio-economic implications, especially for rural communities. I am also an avid birdwatcher and I enjoy reading, watching sports and the company of four-legged companions in my spare time.