Bio: Shweta’s experience lies in leopard-human interactions in arenas where they co-occur. For six years she has been driven to study shared landscapes between people and big cats. This involves the characteristics of encounters between people and big cats, shared histories of leopard-people interactions and ecological dimensions of leopards in human-dominated landscapes of Himachal Pradesh. She has a Bachelor’s in Microbiology (St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai) Master’s in Environmental Science (Mysore University) and a Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice (WildCRU, Oxford University).
Work interests: Research, policy and conservation action involving dynamics of terrestrial large mammal-human interactions in human-dominated arenas.
Current research: Shweta is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies and is currently working on her PhD topic “A study on spatiotemporal patterns of human injuries and deaths due to pantherids using a case study of leopards in Himachal Pradesh, India.” Advisor: Dr Krithi Karanth, Co-advisor: Dr Vidya Athreya
Publications list:
Majgaonkar, Iravatee, Srinivas Vaidyanathan, Arjun Srivathsa, Shweta Shivakumar, Sunil Limaye, and Vidya Athreya. (2019) Distortion of Inferences and Undue Exaggeration of Study Limitations: Response to Shrotriya et Al. Conservation Science and Practice 1 (12): e135. doi: 10.1111/csp2.135
Dhee, Athreya, Vidya, John D C Linnell, Shweta Shivakumar, and Sat Pal Dhiman. (2019) The Leopard That Learnt from the Cat and Other Narratives of Carnivore–Human Coexistence in Northern India. People and Nature 1 (3): 376–86. doi: 10.1002/pan3.10039
Majgaonkar, Iravatee, Srinivas Vaidyanathan, Arjun Srivathsa, Shweta Shivakumar, Sunil Limaye, and Vidya Athreya. (2019) Land‐sharing Potential of Large Carnivores in Human‐modified Landscapes of Western India. Conservation Science and Practice 1 (5): e34. doi: 10.1111/csp2.34
Packer, Craig, Shweta Shivakumar, Vidya Athreya, Meggan E Craft, Harshawardhan Dhanwatey, Poonam Dhanwatey, Bhim Gurung, Anup Joshi, Hadas Kushnir, and John D C Linnell. (2019) Species‐specific Spatiotemporal Patterns of Leopard, Lion and Tiger Attacks on Humans. Journal of Applied Ecology 56 (3): 585–93. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.13311
