Qualifications:

MSc Ecology, Pondicherry University (2022- 2024)

Bachelor’s in Liberal Arts & Sciences, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (2019-2021) 

Email: divija@dakshin.org

Profile: Divija grew up in an environment where classrooms were the ocean and the forests – this early intimacy with the natural world left her with a sense of wonder that has never quite left. Over the years, she has been documenting nature through her photography and has spent hours birdwatching across different landscapes of India. This long-standing curiosity eventually led her to view the natural world through an academic lens. For her master’s thesis, at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, she studied mixed-species groups in waterbird communities – one of the first attempts to examine such interspecies associations among waterbirds.

Beyond academia, Divija’s long-term interests lie in bringing together art and science, exploring how creative mediums can transform public perception and cultivate empathy and awareness for the world around us. She hopes to work through an interdisciplinary lens to create spaces where artists and researchers can come together to redefine what conservation can look like through dialogues and practice of art, writing, and technology. She is also interested in using writing as a tool to explore themes of agency and power in today’s climate conversations.

As a Program Assistant with the SeaChange project, Divija believes that contributing to the upcoming Conservation Integrated platform will help her begin this journey – one that bridges ecological understanding with creative expression to reimagine what conservation could mean when guided as much by feeling as by fact.

Popular articles:

• Murkoth, D. (2020, December). The dual life of Kaliveli wetlands. Nature inFocus.
• Murkoth, D., & Ganguli, S. P. (2022, September). The winged visitors of Pondicherry. Nature inFocus.