Amit Kaushik, a PhD candidate in Integrative Conservation (ICON) and Anthropology at the University of Georgia, has received a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to support his project, titled “Caste and Conservation: Dalit Ecologies and Multispecies Life in the Central Indian Highlands.” The project explores how caste structures shape conservation efforts and human–wildlife interactions in and around the newly established Veerangana Durgawati Tiger Reserve. Through ethnographic and ecological fieldwork with Dalit communities, forest officials, and wildlife, including Indian wolves (Canis lupus pallipes), Amit examines how histories of exclusion and land access influence conservation practices and shared experiences.
