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Anbazhagan Abinesh

Also known as: ABINESH

Indian Institute of Science, Wildlife Institute of India, Pondicherry University, MSc Wildlife biology, Government Arts College Udhagamandalam

ORCID iD 0000-0003-0337-7666
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About

Member:
1.) IUCN SPECIES SURVIVAL COMMISSION SNAKE & LIZARD REDLIST AUTHORITY
2.) IUCN SPECIES SURVIVAL COMMISSION SOUTH ASIAN INVERTEBRATE SPECIALIST GROUP
3.) IUCN SPECIES SURVIVAL COMMISSION GEKKOTA LIZARDS SPECIALIST GROUP
4.) LEAD- TARANTULA CONSERVATION SUB NETWORK FOR SOUTH ASIA (UNDER IUCN SSC SOUTH ASIAN INVERTEBRATE SPECIALIST GROUP)
5.) INVERTEBRATE CONSERVATION AND INFORMATION NETWORK OF SOUTH ASIA (ICINSA)
6.) SOUTH ASIAN REPTILE NETWORK (SARN)

Currently I am a PhD scholar at The Wildlife Biology lab, Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Pondicherry University, India under Prof. Dr.K.Sivakumar ( former ex scientist at WII). I am studying the status, thermal ecology and distribution of the insular endemic pit vipers (Trimeresurus spp) of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.

Achievements:
1. Bachelor’s degree: A report was submitted to the Nilgiri division Forest department (then South division) on the “Checklist of vertebrate fauna of Upper Nilgiris”
2. Master’s degree: Dissertation was on estimating the tiger population of Mudumalai Tiger reserve based on camera trapping and non-invasive molecular techniques (Dna based molecular identification of species and sex).
3. Tamil Nadu Biodiversity greening project (TBGP): Worked as a volunteering herpetologist for a period of 3 years in Nilgiris and other regions of Tamil Nadu or assessing the herpetofauna diversity and assemblage before and after removing invasive species. This was a collaborative project of Tamil Nadu Forest department, Mammalogy and Forest Ecology Lab - Ooty Govt Arts College, Indo American Wildlife Society.
4. World Wildlife fund (WWF – India): Was volunteering to monitor Human Elephant conflict in the Gudalur region of the Nilgiris.
5. Wildlife Institute of India (WII): I worked as a Project intern under the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to assess the spatio temporal distribution and thermal biology of Indian rock pythons in the Moyar river valley (Mudumalai and Satyamangalam Tiger reserve). Duties performed were animal capture, health monitoring, radio tracker insertion surgery, post heal monitoring, release and radio tracking and monitoring. Worked on 7 out of 14 pythons in my tenure.
6. Striped hyaena:
*During the python radio telemetry project, an injured striped hyaena was treated and monitored for around 4 months.
* Peer MPhil degree, I was volunteered to assess the population of striped hyaenas of Moyar valley.
8. Mphil degree: My Mphil degree was towards understanding the distribution of two gecko genus (Cnemaspis, Hemidactylus) in the elevation gradient of the Nilgiris. The conclusion was to find if there is any geographic delineation of the genera with elevation as a factor. After modelling the distribution (occupancy modelling, abundance mapping, species distribution modelling, two species model) it indicated such a delineation and a new species of a different genus (under review) to be conserved.
7. Biodiversity indexing of The Nilgiris: Our (Me and Mr. Moinudheen)15 years of biodiversity indexing in the Nilgiri hills have enlisted 2000 species of terrestrial fauna and counting more (as of dated 10/07/2025).
8. Taxonomy:

1. New gecko species Cnemaspis reticulata sp.nov (Sayyed et al. 2023).
2. Rediscovery of a moth: Chiretolpis erubescens after 132 years (Samson et al. 2024)
3. New gecko species Dravidogecko coonoor sp.nov (Abinesh et al. 2025)
4. Two New Firefly species: Lampryidae: Ototretinae. (Arnob et al. 2025)
5. Rediscovery of the Sonnerat's shrew (Diplomesodon sonnerati Cheke, 2012) after 200 years from The Nilgiris: Nizamudheen et al. 2025
6. Myophthiria zeylanica - First record to India

9. Indian Institute of Science, Centre for Ecological Sciences (IISc, CES): Project Associate 1 at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (IISc) under the Sleep ecology project. I studied the sleep patterns, anti-predatory behaviour and habitat perch sites, sprint performance and functional morphology of Indian agamid lizards from more than 500 individuals of 11 species.
10. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): Red list assessment for all Indian theraphosid spiders (tarantula) was carried out recently, where I was a crew member. A happening after 23 years.
11. IUCN Red listing 2026 - Western ghats Snakes
11. Snakebite mitigation: Case study was carried out in Coimbatore from a decade old data (under review) and the results are in consultation with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department for a mitigation plan.
12. Symposium invite: Selected and Invited for Animal behavior symposium at MaxPlank, Germany (Relab) - A proposal based on quantum biology in social signaling in social behavior of lizard

Employment

  • Indian Institute of Science Project Associate-1
    2022 - 2022
  • Wildlife Institute of India Project Intern
    2018 - 2019

Education

  • Pondicherry University PhD
    2025 - Present
  • MSc Wildlife biology MSc Wildlife biology
    2017 - 2019
  • Government Arts College Udhagamandalam Bsc Wildlife biology
    2013 - 2016

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (24)