Shomita Mukherjee, 2024-06-22

Shomita Mukherjee is a Senior Principal Scientist at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, with over three decades of experience in wildlife research, conservation genetics, and carnivore ecology. She holds an MSc and PhD in Wildlife Science from the Wildlife Institute of India. Her doctoral research was on habitat use and coexistence of sympatric small carnivores in Sariska Tiger Reserve.

Mukherjee has worked with leading conservation institutions including the Wildlife Trust of India, Tiger Watch Ranthambhore, National Centre for Biological Sciences and SACON. Her research integrates ecology, phylogeography, morphology, and molecular tools, with a strong focus on small wild cats, owlets, and other threatened taxa. She has led nationally significant projects, including the Conservation Action Plan for the Critically Endangered Forest Owlet and genomic studies on Rusty-spotted Cats, Fishing Cats, and other felids.

As an educator and mentor, she teaches Conservation Genetics, Carnivore Ecology, and Evolutionary Ecology, supervises postgraduate and doctoral research, and conducts capacity-building workshops across India. Mukherjee has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments and has been a member of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group since 1995.