Ayushi Jain
Ayushi Jain, one of Conservation Nation’s 2025 Conservationist Grant recipients, is a PhD candidate at the University of Miami’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy and a recipient of the Inlaks Shivdasani Scholarship from the Inlaks Foundation. She holds a master’s in ecology and environmental sciences from Pondicherry University in India.
Ayushi’s research focuses on endangered species conservation, freshwater biodiversity, and community-based approaches. Her interdisciplinary work integrates ecological fieldwork, remote sensing, political ecology, and local knowledge to examine how infrastructure development impacts critically endangered species.
Since 2019, Ayushi has led conservation efforts for freshwater turtles in India, particularly Pelochelys cantorii, a critically endangered and evolutionarily distinct (EDGE) species. She established a community-led alert network to protect turtle nests, mobilize stakeholders, and co-create effective conservation strategies. Her work has been featured in documentaries by Nature In Focus and RoundGlass Sustain in Bengaluru, India. The latter, titled “Saving the Bhimanama: Ayushi Jain and a Giant Turtle,” received the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and was recognized as the best documentary at the 15th Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival (2025).
Project Overview
Through her Conservation Nation project, Ayushi will conduct ecological surveys to better understand nesting bank requirements and identify how dam-induced water level fluctuations affect turtle reproductive success. Using camera traps and participatory research, she will collect data on nest and bank characteristics, river flow, and the overlap between dam operations and nesting seasons. Community-led efforts will continue to protect and relocate identified nests, increasing hatching survival.
A multi-actor participatory approach will be used to evaluate the social costs and benefits of dam operations for local communities. By combining ecological research with multi-stakeholder engagement, Ayushi’s work seeks to balance biodiversity conservation and human water use, informing more balanced, sustainable freshwater management policies in India.
