Research Interest
I am fascinated by the study of seasonal migratory behavior and how it impacts ecosystems. Understanding both long-distance and short-distance migrations is crucial for uncovering how animals adapt to their surroundings and is essential for various scientific disciplines dedicated to conservation efforts. Personally, I am particularly interested in investigating the intricacies of seasonal migratory behavior.
Recent Projects
Research
Project Title: Research and Conservation: Monitoring Apis dorsata Colonies in the Metropolitan Area of Bengaluru, India
Supervisor: Dr. Axel Brockmann
Collaborator: Dr. Smitha Krishnan (Alliance Bioversity International - CIAT), Dr. Wei Guo and Sylvain Grison (The University of Tokyo)
Apis dorsata, an important pollinator in India, nests in urban areas, often removed due to defensive behavior. In Bengaluru, our study revealed a homogeneous colony distribution (1.81 ± 1.83 colonies/km) with a preference for apartments. Short stays and a monsoon-related reduction in colony abundances indicate two types of migration: 1) environmental and 2) hormonally regulated migration. Urban landscapes offer advantages for studying Apis dorsata colony cycles.
Experience
I immersed myself in the intricate world of Aisan honey bees, important pollinators in India. Guided by Dr. Axel Brockmann and collaborating with esteemed researchers, we explored Apis dorsata honey bee colony life cycle and migration patterns. My responsibilities included setting up cameras for migration dance recording, conducting behavioral assays, and analyzing honey bee waggle dances. In my prior Masters Internship at the same lab from January 2017 to July 2017, under Dr. Axel Brockmann's mentorship, I focused on manipulating Apis florea honey bee colonies to study nursing behavior, overcoming challenges associated with open nesting. This dual experience deepened my understanding of honey bee behavior, contributing to both the broader field of research and my personal growth as a scientist.
Recent Projects
2. Project Title: Exploring and Managing human-bee conflict in Asian cities using AI
Supervisor: Dr. Axel Brockmann
Collaborator: Dr. Smitha Krishnan (Alliance Bioversity International - CIAT), Dr. Wei Guo and Sylvain Grison (The University of Tokyo)
In this project, we focus on unraveling the foraging of bee colonies in urban landscape by employing Geographic Information System (GIS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. The utilization of GIS helps characterize the surrounding land uses of colony aggregations (S. Grison, R. Siddaganga et al., 2023), while AI is employed to decode the foraging dances performed by bees from videos, particularly the waggle dance of Apis dorsata. The challenge lies in decoding these dances using AI across multiple hives under natural conditions, given the absence of reference data to train AI, necessitating the generation of new data. To capture videos at multiple nesting sites simultaneously, I used commercially available video cameras, namely the Panasonic HC-X929, Panasonic HC-V7, and GoPro 8 cameras. Using the recorded videos, I extracted timecodes of the beginnings and endings of the dances. Subsequently, raw videos were cut at these timecodes to create short clips of dancing. These clips were annotated, involving the drawing of bounding boxes at each frame of the dances around the corresponding dancing bee, with the addition of a directional vector (coding the bee orientation). This process resulted in the creation of a Training-Test-Validation set for the Deep Learning model. Deep learning algorithms were then applied to segment the dancing bee and record their moving trajectory and direction. We have successfully developed a working model to decode dances, and currently, we are in the validation phase for the AI-decoded dances
