Faculty Profile

Doctor of Philosophy in Wildlife Sciences(Saurashtra University, Gujarat and Wildlife Institute of India)

Dr. Monica completed her doctoral degree from Wildlife Institute of India in year 2016 and later completed her National Post-doctoral fellowship at Forest Research Institute. Apart from doing research, she also taught master’s student at Forest Research Institute and taught few courses to doctoral students at Wildlife Institute of India.

Dr. Monica did her PhD to understand the impact of small-scale extractive practices on vegetation and bird communities in Himalayan foothills. Her research interest revolves around understanding the impact of disturbance on forest ecosystem especially in directing the community characteristics. Understanding the role of invasive species on mutualistic processes and native community is another area of Dr. Kaushik’s interest. With her amazing students, she is now trying to find ways for making urban green spaces avenues for biodiversity conservation in urban areas.

Dr. Monica has received various grants such as Rufford small grant (https://www.rufford.org/projects/monica_kaushik) to research on bird habitat relationships, Future Conservationist award, Sigma Xi, Raptor Research and Conservation foundation and Dr. Salim Ali National Fellowship.

Dr. Monica has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral and Professional Research fellowship by the United States of India Educational Foundation. During her tenure at Colorado State University she was also selected as an International Presidential Fellow.

Dr. Monica is an active reviewer for various journal such Indian Birds, Tropical Conservation Science andNeobiota.

Dr. Monica has been actively contributing her services to increase bird watching and monitoring in Himalayan region by training frontline staff of forest department and tourist guides. She has been participating in monitoring and outreach programs run by Uttarakhand Forest Department such as Asian water bird census, Mussoorie bird count and Uttarakhand Spring Bird Festival.

• NinadAvinashMungi, Monica Kaushik, Nitya Prakash Mohanty, Rajat Rastogi (2019). A stitch in time: Identifying knowledge gaps in the research and management of invasive species in India. Biologia. https://link.springer.com/article/10.2478%2Fs11756-018-00186-8
• Rupali Sharma, Hukum Singh, Monica Kaushik, Raman Nautiyal, Ombir Singh (2018). Adaptive physiological response, carbon partitioning, and biomass production of Withaniasomnifera (L.) Dunal grown under elevated CO2 regimes. 3 biotech 8(6) 267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-018-1292-1.
• Monica Kaushik, LibaPejchar, Lisa H Crampton (2018). Potential disruption of seed dispersal in the absence of a native Kauai thrush. PLoS ONE 13(1): e0191992. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191992.
• Geetha Ramaswami, Monica Kaushik, Soumya Prasad, Raman Sukumar and David Westcott (2016). Dispersal by generalist frugivores affect management of an invasive plant. Biotropicadoi:10.1111/btp.12343/pdf.
• Sara P. Bombaci, Cooper M. Farr, H. Travis Gallo, Anna M. Mangan, Lani T. Stinson, Monica Kaushik and LibaPejchar. (2015).Using Twitter to communicate conservation science beyond professional conferences. Conservation biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12570.
• Vinod Bihari Mathur, Monica Kauhsik, S.S. Bist, NinadMungi and Qamar Qureshi. (2015). Management of human-wildlife interaction and invasive alien species in India. Report number (TR-2015/004), Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.
• Monica Kaushik, NinadMungi (2015). Human–wildlife interactions and management of invasive alien species. Current science, Vol.108, No. 6, 25 March 2015.
• Monica Kaushik. (2014). Influence of habitat structure and anthropogenic disturbances on diurnal raptor community in Rajaji National Park, India. (Raptor research and conservation foundation project completion report). http://www.raptors.net.in/pdf/report3/index.html
• Monica Kaushik, Dhananjai Mohan and Pratap Singh. (2013). Study of impacts of biotic disturbances on birds in selected areas of Uttar Pradesh &Uttarakhand and development of Bird-Habitat monitoring protocol. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. (WII-grant-in aid project completion report).
• Monica Kaushik. (2013). Range extension for the Orange-breasted Green-pigeon Treronbicinctus to western Uttarakhand, India. Indian Birds 8 (1): 17.
• Monica Kaushik, Dhananjai Mohan and Pratap Singh. (2012). Response of migrant and resident bird communities to anthropogenic disturbances in Shiwalik landscape, Uttarakhand, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 109(1 & 2).

• Monica Kaushik. 2018 (oral). Effects of chronic anthropogenic disturbances and past logging on forest structure and composition in Himalayan foothills. International Biodiversity Congress. Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India.
• Monica Kaushik. 2018 (Invited Speaker). Detrimental influence on bird biodiversity in forests with small-scale resource extraction. Karnataka Bird Festival, Mangalore.
• Monica Kaushik.2015 (oral). Global Aichi and India’s National Biodiversity Targets. Grasslands, Climate Change and Management of Invasive Weeds in Protected Areas. Chunakhan, Powalgarh, India.
• Monica Kaushik, LibaPejchar and Lisa H Crampton. 2015. (Oral). Seed-dispersal by native and non-native birds on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii. Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Honolulu.
• Monica Kaushik. 2015. (Oral). Small-scale extractive disturbances and its effects on vegetation and birds in tropical forest: A case study from Himalayan foothills. Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Honolulu.
• Monica Kaushik. 2015 (Oral). Untangling the response of bird community to disturbance and invasions in Himalayan foothills. International Ornithological Congress of Southeast Asia, Thailand.
• Geetha Ramaswami, Monica Kaushik and Soumya Prasad 2015(Oral). Managing the unmanageable: evaluating ecological processes that make invasive plant control a challenge. Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Honolulu.
• Monica Kaushik. 2014. (Oral).Seed dispersal dynamics of native and non-native birds in the Alakai forest. Brown Bag Lunch Presentation. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office, Unites States of America.
• Monica Kaushik. 2014. (Oral). Seed dispersal dynamics of native and invasive birds in the Alakai forest, Kauai. Kauai Conservation Alliance, Kauai.
• LibaPejchar, Susan Culliney, Monica Kaushik and Lisa H Crampton. 2014. (Oral) Seed dispersal and the decline of hawaii’s fruit-eating birds. Joint meeting ofAmerican Ornithological Congress-Cooper Ornithological Society and Society of Canadian ornithologist, Estes Park, Colorado (http://americanornithology.org/sites/default/files/2014_AOU_COS_SCO_Abstracts.pdf).
• Sara Bombaci, Cooper Farr, Anna Mangan, Travis Gallo, Lani Stinson, Monica Kaushik and LibaPejchar. How well does twitter communicate conservation science? A case study of ICCB 2013. 2014.(Oral). 2nd North America Congress for Conservation Biology, Missoula, USA.
• Dhananjai Mohan and Monica Kaushik.2013. (Oral).Identifying indicator birds for small-scale extractive disturbances in Shiwalik forest landscape in northern India. International conference on Indian ornithology, SACON, Comibatore, India.
• Monica Kaushik, J. Xiaoxu, Yang Liu and Masakasi Sato. 2012. (Oral) Is tourism sustainable for flowering plants of Mount Apoi? GCOE-INeT Summer School, Japan.\
• Monica Kaushik and Dhananjai Mohan. 2012. (Poster).Influence of extractive disturbances on vegetation and bird communities in Shiwalik landscape, India. GCOE-INeT Summer School, Japan.
• Monica Kaushik, Dhananjai Mohan and Pratap Singh. 2011. (Oral).Response of resident and migrant bird communities to anthropogenic disturbances in Shiwalik landscape, Uttarakhand, India.International conference on Indian ornithology, SACON, Comibatore, India.
• Monica Kaushik, Dhananjai Mohan and Pratap Singh. 2010. (Poster) Response of bird communities to anthropogenic disturbances in tropical dry deciduous forests of Uttarakhand.Students Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS), Bangalore.
• Monica Kaushik, AnkilaJ.Hiremath, and Bharath Sundaram. 2009. (Poster) Lantana: invading native seed dispersal networks. International Conference on Invasive Plants, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Bangalore.