Qualifications:

• Master’s in Ecology, Environment & Sustainable Development, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati, 2018
• Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Law and Policy, National Law University, New Delhi, 2019
• Bachelor’s (Hons) in English Literature, Cotton College, Gauhati University, Assam, 2015

Email: debangini@dakshin.org

Profile: Debangini is an interdisciplinary ecologist and science communicator with over eight years of experience specialising in human-wildlife interactions and multispecies ethnographies across urban and edge landscapes. At Dakshin Foundation, she works as a Senior Outreach Coordinator for the Marine Flagships programme and serves as an institutional Communications Officer. She has co-founded and is currently the editor of Dakshin’s flagship marine conservation newsletter, Not Just Soup.

Concurrently, she is a doctoral scholar at the Chatur Ullu Lab, MIT World Peace University, Pune, where she founded the Urban Owl Project through which she is trying to document human-owl dynamics and anthropogenic threats to owls. She has previously worked with the Counter Wildlife Trafficking program at WCS-India, the National Biodiversity Mission at ATREE, Turtle Survival Alliance-India, and the Greater Adjutant Stork Conservation Program at Aaranyak, Guwahati. She enjoys birdwatching in her free time and remains firmly committed to bridging the gap between social perceptions and empirical conservation science.

Publications:

• Popular Articles
  • • Ray, D. (2026). Nocturnal City Neighbours: The Owling Hour. RoundGlass Sustain.
    • Ray, D. (2025). Spotted Owlets: My Fluffy, Head-Bobbing Friends. RoundGlass Sustain.
    • Ray, D. (2024). Barn Owls: Caught In The Urban Rat Race. RoundGlass Sustain.
    • Ray, D. (2021). Into the thick of it—Chasing my dream to be an interdisciplinary urban ecologist. Lonely Conservationists.
    • Ray, D. (2020). The Urban Jungle Saga: the need for citizen science in urban biodiversity conservation. Northeast Development Agency (NEDA)
    • Ray, D. (2019). Slow and Steady—Will They Win the Race? …Walking the Turtle Trail in Assam. EcoNE.
    • Ray, D. (2017). Of Prayers and Ecological Footprints. Eclectic Northeast, 6(11), 48-50.
    • Ray, D. (2017). Documenting social features impacting threatened turtle populations in Sonitpur district along Brahmaputra. The Himalayan: A Naturenomics Publication.
• Newsletters
  • • Not Just Soup: shark stories, turtle tales & more… (Editor, 2023–Present). Marine Flagships Programme, Dakshin Foundation.
    • Owl Post (Founder & Editor, 2023-Present).