Who We Are

People

Director & Founder / Student Training Lead

Himani Nautiyal | MS, DSc, Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Himani Nautiyal is a Biological Anthropologist working as a postdoctoral researcher with Howard University, Washington DC, USA, and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, India. In the past seven years of her field research in the higher Himalayas, she has developed multidisciplinary approaches to identify and predict factors driving threats to biodiversity and local communities. Her work uses Himalayan langurs as a model for understanding animal-human coexistence and supporting mitigation practices that facilitate coexistence between local communities and wild animals.

Co-Director / Field Coordinator

Diganta Mandal | MSc, PhD Candidate

Diganta is a Biological Anthropology PhD student at Indiana University. His research focuses on how chemical landscapes, climate change, and anthropogenic pressure impact alloprimate populations, especially Himalayan langurs in the Indian Himalayan Region.

Co-Director / Grants & Partnerships Lead

Elizabeth Coggeshall | MSc, MA, DSc

Elizabeth Coggeshall completed her doctorate in Biological Anthropology at Indiana University. She has studied and worked with alloprimate species for 10+ years and focuses on health and development in changing landscapes. Her work with HLP studies behavioral and physiological responses of S. schistaceus mother-infant dyads and explores community narratives, bioethics, ethnoprimatology, and visual anthropology.

Research Team

Research Associate

Virendra Mathur | MS, PhD Candidate

Virendra completed his BS-MS degree from IISER Mohali with a biology major. He studied sleeping site choice of the Central Himalayan langurs for his master's thesis, work that helped shape his understanding of human habitation, wildlife habitats, and Himalayan ecosystem conservation. His doctoral project investigates movement strategies of Himalayan langurs as they respond to seasonal resource distributions and experimental feeding arrays.

Research Coordinator

Soumalya Ghorui | MSc, PhD Candidate

Soumalya is a PhD student in Biological Anthropology at Boston University studying Himalayan langur energetics across high-altitude landscapes. He started with HLP in 2022 in Kanchula and aided long-term behavioral data collection.

Research Coordinator / Community Member

Suraj Dungwal

Suraj has worked with HLP since 2022 and is integral to project success, assisting on almost every individual project. He was born and raised in the valley and hopes to work for the forest department in the future.

Field Research Associate / Local Community Member

Kalam Singh

Kalam Singh is a local community member with extensive knowledge of high-Himalayan terrain, guiding the team through remote valleys and supporting traditional ecological knowledge research.

Outreach and Communications Coordinator

Avirup Sinha | MSc, PhD Candidate

Avirup is a PhD student in Biological Anthropology at the University of Florida. His research studies bioacoustics and vocalization repertoires of the Central Himalayan langur across landscapes.

Research Associate / Community Member

Harish Maithani

Harish Maithani is a local community member and long-term field assistant with the Himalayan Langur Project. He is an experienced bird guide in the Himalayan region and plays a central role in coordinating field logistics, outreach, and community engagement initiatives.

Field Research Associate / Local Community Member

Shailendra Kumar

Shailendra Kumar is a community member who leads the project's work in the nearby town of Gopeshwar. He has extensive experience in urban primate research and contributes to field studies focused on human–wildlife interactions in rapidly changing landscapes.

Field Team Lead / Local Community Member

Mohit Mandwal

Mohit Mandwal is a local community member and field assistant specializing in high-altitude research sites. He supports long-term data collection and plays an active role in community outreach and engagement.

Supervisory Board

Colin Chapman

Vancouver Island University

Rui Diogo

Howard University

Dipto Sarkar

Carleton University

Cecile Sarabian

Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse

Anindya Sinha

National Institute of Advanced Studies

Julie Teichroeb

University of Toronto Scarborough

Michael Wasserman

Indiana University

Vishal Singh

Centre For Ecology Development And Research

Valeria Romano

IMBE / IRD

Irene Teixidor-Toneu

IMBE / IRD

Christopher Schmitt

Boston University

Alumni

Vinotha Ramesh Kumar Rutger Emke Ryan Ura Simran Sethi Shashank Pansari Vikas Verma Munib Khanyari Akash Verma Takhe Bamin Anjana Dey Camille Testard Swapna Lawrence Rashmi Singh Diandra Lewis Prashant Mahajan Ankit Moun Kruttika Bhave Mohit Rajput Gaurav Dixit Victoria McInnis Sheela Kanswal Kimya Gajare Neeraj Bisht Dhyan C K Gaurav Uppal Abhijit Dey Rimung Tasso Philippe Berthiaume Mohammed Ismail Myriam Trottier-Paquet Bhaskar Bhandari Divya Dwivedi Mohib Uddin Tanisha Arunan Kavin Prakash Ashu Tomar Swathi Ramesh Rishabh Jaggi Akash Kumar Isis Palay Amish Dua Aarjav Chauhan

Support & Funding

Research Grants

Rufford Foundation, National Science Foundation, Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society

University Partners

Kyoto University, Indiana University, University of Toronto, Howard University, University of Florida, Boston University

India-Based Institutions

National Institute of Advanced Studies, Doon University, UPES Dehradun

Conservation & Field Support

Centre for Ecology Development and Research, Uttarakhand Forest Department, We Naturalists

Professional Societies

International Primatological Society, American Society of Primatologists