Dr. Tamanna Kalam

Scientific Project Coordinator

Department Integrative Earth System Science

Main Focus

Dr Tamanna Kalam is a conservation scientist whose research focuses on understanding how human pressures reshape ecosystems and drive the decline of wildlife populations and habitats across human-dominated landscapes. This includes understanding the drivers (e.g., historical and contemporary, direct and indirect) that drive species and habitats toward loss, and using that understanding to develop on-the-ground mitigation strategies.

For instance, her doctoral research at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin focused on reconstructing over a century of change in tropical dry woodlands in India to understand how habitat loss has shaped contemporary megafauna distributions. In earlier positions, she has examined human-wildlife interactions from different angles, including (i) mapping human-elephant conflict across tea plantations, (ii) using social surveys to study the effects of land use change on human-wildlife conflict, and (iii) using genetic analysis to understand how habitat fragmentation affects gene flow and connectivity among elephants.

In her research, she employs several methodologies, including fieldwork, social surveys, genetic laboratory work, and spatial analysis. She regularly engages in science communication and outreach, working with several communities, including government agencies, indigenous communities, NGOs, corporates, and the general public, to translate conservation science into on-the-ground decisions.

Curriculum Vitae

Professional Positions:

2023-Present: Core Expert at IUCN Working Group on Human-Wildlife Conflict Indicators.
2021-2025: Doctoral Researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
2019-2020: Content Writer at ScienceABC, India.
2017-2020: Project Coordinator at Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
2016: Elephant Conservation Intern at WWF-India, Assam, India, 2016.
2014-2015: Junior Research Fellow at Care Earth Trust, Chennai, India.
2012-2014: Outreach Officer at Greenpeace-India, Hyderabad, India.

Teaching Experience:

2025: Biodiversity in the Anthropocene, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Education:

2021-2025: PhD. Geography at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
2010-2012: M.Sc. Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Pondicherry University, India.
2007-2010: BSc. Environment Science at Bharati Vidyapeeth University, India.

Publications:

Kalam, T., Pratzer, M., Suryawanshi, K. R., Liu, X., & Kuemmerle, T. (2025). Social-ecological determinants of contemporary megafauna distributions in Indian tropical dry woodlands. Ecology and Society, 30(4).
Kalam, T., Baumann, M., Pötzschner, F.;…. Kuemmerle, T. (2025). Tropical dry woodland loss in India since 1880 and its relation to current megafauna distributions. Ecological Applications.
Sharma R, De Rahul, Puyravaud J-P, Parida, J., Sedhupathy, A., Kalam T, Davidar P. (2024). Patterns of genetic diversity, gene flow and genetic structure of three Peninsular Indian elephant populations indicate population connectivity. Conservation Genetics, 1-19.
Pratzer, M., Meyfroidt, P., Antongiovanni, M., Aragon, R., Baldi, G., Cabezas, S. C., …. Kalam T,… & Kuemmerle, T. (2024). An actor-centered, scalable land system typology for addressing biodiversity loss in the world’s tropical dry woodlands. Global Environmental Change, 86.
Puyravaud J-P, Cushman SA, Reddy PA, Boominathan D, Sharma R, Arumugam N, Selvan KM, Mohanraj N, Arulmozhi S, Rahim A, Kalam T, De R, …& Davidar P. (2022). Fencing Can Alter Gene Flow of Asian Elephant Populations within Protected Areas. Conservation, 2(4):709-725.
Parida, J., Sharma, R., De, R., Kalam, T., ... & Davidar, P. (2022). Genetic characterisation of fragmented Asian elephant populations with one recent extinction in its eastern-central Indian range. Ecological Genetics and Genomics, 24.
Kalam, T., T.A. Puttaveerasawamy,…& P. Davidar (2020). Spatial aggregation and specificity of incidents with wildlife make tea plantations in southern India potential buffers with protected areas. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(11): 16478–16493.
Kalam, T., Baishya, H.K., & Smith, D. (2018). Lethal Fence Electrocution: A Major Threat to Asian Elephants in Assam, India. Tropical Conservation Science (11), 1-8.
Bhaskar, A. & Kalam, T. (2016). Tropical mountain wetlands. Current Science, 1446-1447.

Technical Reports:

Deciphering land use/cover change around protected areas of Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu (2016), Care Earth Trust, submitted to Tamil Nadu State Land Use Research Board State Planning Commission.
Assessment of Wild Mammal Populations in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras (2015), Care Earth Trust, submitted to IIT, Madras.
Deciphering land use/cover change in Western Districts of Tamil Nadu (2015) Care Earth Trust, submitted to Tamil Nadu State Land Use Research Board State Planning Commission.