Visiting Faculty of Environmental Studies, Ashoka University
Ph.D. Duke University, USAGhazala Shahabuddin’s research interests lie at the intersection of ecological science and conservation policy. Specifically, she works on the ecological impacts of land use change, forest exploitation and habitat fragmentation with a focus on forest bird taxa, particularly woodpeckers. She has a PhD in Ecology and Conservation Biology from Duke University, USA (1998) for which she studied the response of butterfly assemblages to fragmentation in Lago Guri, Venezuela.
Since her PhD, Ghazala’s work has expanded to the policy arena including pioneering work on conservation-induced displacement and community-based conservation in India which has been published extensively. Her book Conservation at the Crossroads (Permanent Black & New India Foundation, 2010), critically analyzes contemporary wildlife policy and implementation in India. She has also co-edited other books including Nature in the New Economy (with K. Sivaramakrishnan; Orient Blackswan, 2019) and Making Conservation Work (with Mahesh Rangarajan, Permanent Black, 2007). In addition, she has written over 80 popular articles, commentaries and book reviews on nature and environment.
Ghazala worked as an Associate Professor at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University in Delhi where she taught at the School of Human Ecology from 2009-2014. Her current research focusses on long-term ecological change in community-managed forests in the Western Himalayan region as seen in forest bird communities and tree diversity. Ghazala has been a Visiting Professor to the Department of Environmental Studies since 2021.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
1. Shahabuddin, G. & K. Sivaramakrishnan. (Eds). 2019. Nature in the New Economy: People. Wildlife and the law in India. Orient Blackswan, India. ISBN 9789352876136
2. Rangarajan, M., M.D. Madhusudan & G. Shahabuddin (eds.). 2014. Nature Without Borders. Oxford University Press, Delhi, India, ISBN 978-81-250-56140
3. Shahabuddin, G. 2010. Conservation at the Crossroads: Science, Society and the Future of India’s Wildlife. Permanent Black, India. ISBN 81-7824-264-8
4. Shahabuddin, G. and M. Rangarajan, eds. 2007. Making Conservation Work: Securing Biodiversity in this New Century. Pp. 298. Delhi: Permanent Black. ISBN 81-7824-197-8.
BOOK CHAPTERS (SELECTED)
1. Shahabuddin, G. & A. Bhartari 2022. ‘Conserving with People: Challenges and Opportunities of Conservation Reserves in India.’ Pp 88-101 In M.K. Misra (Ed). Wildlife India @ 50, Saving the Wild, Securing the Future. Rupa Publications, Delhi.
2. Shahabuddin, G. 2019. Rewilding with the Asiatic Cheetah, Policy and Politics of Wildlife Reintroduction in India. Pgs.83-107 In Shahabuddin, G. & K. Sivaramakrishnan. (Eds). 2019. Nature in the New Economy: People. Wildlife and the law in India. Orient Blackswan, India.
3. Shahabuddin, G. & R. Thadani. 2018. ‘Biodiversity in Managed Landscapes: A View of Potential and Constraints in Van Panchayats of Kumaon Himalayas, India.’ Pp. 109-131 In Shonil Bhagwat (Ed.) Conservation and Development in India: Reimagining Wilderness. Taylor & Francis, London.
4. Shahabuddin, G. 2016. ‘Wildlife- Creatures Great and Small’ ,Pp 126-159 in Baviskar A. (Ed.). First Garden of the Republic: Nature in the President’s Estate. Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.
5. Rao, M., H. Nagendra, , G. Shahabuddin & L. Curasco. 2016. ‘Integrating Community-Managed Areas into Protected Area Systems: the Promise of Synergies and the Reality of Trade-offs’. In L. Joppa, J. Robinson & J. Baillie (Eds.) Protected Areas: Are they Safeguarding Biodiversity? Wiley Blackwill, West Sussex, UK. ISBN: 978-1-118-33816-2
6. Shahabuddin, G. 2014. ‘Tiger Crisis & the Response: Reclaiming the Wilderness in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan.’ In Rangarajan, M. & K. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.) Shifting Ground: People, Animals and Mobility in India’s Environmental History. Oxford University Press.ISBN 9780198098959
JOURNAL ARTICLES (SELECTED)
1. Kacker, S., S. Krishna, A. Das and G. Shahabuddin (2024). Plant arrival and survival in a multiple-use landscape: Implications for success in Himalayan oak forests. Forest Ecology and Management 562: 121941.
2. Shahabuddin, G. 2024. A Novel Look at Human-Animal Relations in Lively Cities. Urban Geography 45 (3).
3. Fangyuan, H. et al. 2024. Ecological filtering shapes the impacts of agricultural deforestation on biodiversity. Nature Ecology and Evolution DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02280-w. (International collaborative research)
4. Das, A., T. Menon, J. Ratnam, R. Thadani, G. Rajashekar, R. Fararoda and G. Shahabuddin. 2021. Expansion of pine into mid-elevation Himalayan oak forests: Patterns and drivers in a multiple-use landscape. Forest Ecology and Management 497 (119491).
5. Menon, T. and Shahabuddin, G. 2021. Assessing woodpeckers as indicators of bird diversity and habitat structure. Biodiversity and Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02164-0.
6. Shahabuddin, G., R. Goswami, M. Krishnadas and T. Menon. 2021. Decline in bird species and guilds due to land use change in Western Himalaya. Global Ecology and Conservation 25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01447
7. Kumar, R., G. Shahabuddin and A. Kumar. 2020. Foraging niche differentiation among sympatric woodpecker species in forests of North-western India. Acta Ornithologica 55(1).
8. Ghosh, M., D. Mohan, K. Karanth, U. Borthakur, S. Pimm, A. Harihar, T. Price, D. Mariyam, R. Athreya, A. Saxena, V. Mathur, V. Vijay, M. Onial, G. Shahabuddin, V.V. Robin, K. Wacker, P. Chanchani, A. Datta, D. Chetry, U. Ramakrishnan, P. Thatte, R. An (2019). Protected Areas and Biodiversity Conservation in India. Biological Conservation 237: 114-124.
9. Menon, T., H. Sridhar and G. Shahabuddin (2019). Effects of Extractive Use on Forest Birds in Western Himalayas: Role of Local and Landscape Factors. Forest Ecology and Management 448: 457-465.
10. Kumar, R., G. Shahabuddin & A. Kumar. 2015. Habitat determinants of woodpecker abundance and species richness in sub-Himalayan dipterocarp forests of north-west India. Acta Ornithologica 49(2): 243-254.
11. Hudson, L.N. et al. 2014. The PREDICTS database: a global database of how terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts. Ecology & Evolution 4(24): 4701-4735. (International collaborative work)
12. Shahabuddin, G. & B. Lakshmi. 2014. Conservation-induced Displacement: Recent Perspectives from India. Environmental Justice 7(5):122-129.
13. Kumar, R. & G. Shahabuddin. 2012. Assessing the status and distribution of the Great Slaty Woodpecker Mulleripicus pulverulentus (Temminck, 1826) in Sub-Himalayan Uttarakhand, India. Journal of Bombay Natural History Society 109 (2): 17-22.
14. Kumar, R., Ghazala Shahabuddin and Ajith Kumar (2011): How Good are Managed Forests at Conserving Native Woodpecker Communities? A study in sub-Himalayan Dipterocarp Forests of Northwest India. Biological Conservation 144(6): 1876-1884.
15. Shahabuddin, G. & M. Rao. (2010) Do Community-Conserved Areas Effectively Conserve Biodiversity? Global Insights and the Indian Context. Biological Conservation 143: 2926-2936.
16. Shahabuddin, G. & R. Kumar (2007) Effects of Extractive Disturbance on Bird Assemblages, Vegetation Structure and Floristics of Tropical Scrub Habitat, Sariska Tiger Reserve, India. Forest Ecology & Management 246: 175-185.
17. Shahabuddin, G., R. Kumar and M. Shrivastava.( 2007). Creation of Inviolate Space: Lives, livelihoods and conflict in Sariska Tiger Reserve. Economic & Political Weekly Vol 42 (20): 1855-1862.
18. Rangarajan, M. and G. Shahabuddin (2006). Displacement and relocation from Protected Areas: Towards a biological and historical synthesis. Conservation & Society 4(3): 359-378.
19. Shahabuddin, G., and R. Kumar. (2006) Influence of anthropogenic disturbance on birds of tropical dry forest: the role of vegetation structure. Animal Conservation 9: 404-413.
20. Kumar, R. and G. Shahabuddin (2005) Effects of biomass extraction on vegetation structure, diversity and composition of an Indian tropical dry forest. Environmental Conservation 32(3):1-12.
21. Shahabuddin, G. and C.A. Riveros. (2005). Frugivorous butterfly species in tropical forest fragments: correlates of vulnerability to extinction. Biodiversity and Conservation 14(5): 1137-1152.
22. J. Terborgh, L. Lopez, P. Nunez, M. Rao, G. Shahabuddin, G. Orihuela, M. Riveros, R. Ascanio, G.H. Adler, T.D. Lambert, and L. Balbas. (2001) Ecological meltdown in predator-free forest fragments. Science November 30, 2001: 1923-1926.
23. Shahabuddin, G., G. A. Herzner, C. Aponte and M.C. Gomez. (2000). Persistence of a frugivorous butterfly species in a fragmented landscape: The role of movement and habitat quality. Biodiversity and Conservation 9: 1623-1641.
24. Shahabuddin, G and J. Terborgh. (1999). Frugivorous butterflies in Venezuelan forest fragments: Abundance, diversity and the effects of isolation. Journal of Tropical Ecology 15(6): 704-723.
Aga Khan International Scholarship (1995-97)
New India Fellowship (2007)
University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Advanced Study of India Fellowship (2015).
Foundation Course in Environmental Studies (FC-0102)
Science, Society & Sustainability (ES 2106/BIO 2106)
Conservation Policy in the Developing World (ES 2002/POL 2069/SOA 2223)