Mihir Ravindra Kulkarni

Assistant Professor

School of Environment & Sustainability

mihir dot kulkarni at iihs dot ac dot in

Mihir Ravindra Kulkarni is an aquatic ecologist who studies the patterns of freshwater biodiversity and the underlying ecological and evolutionary processes to develop ecological management strategies for urban freshwater habitats. He uses environmental monitoring, biodiversity surveys with traditional and high-throughput molecular methods for both observational and experimental studies.

Mihir specialises in freshwater invertebrates and has studied them across peninsular India during his PhD from Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, and subsequent postdoctoral research at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad. At IIHS, Mihir is involved in the Long-Term Urban Ecological Observatory (LTUEO) at the Kengeri Campus. He has taught postgraduate courses on freshwater biodiversity and ecology at IGNFA, WII and NCBS.

Apart from research, Mihir has contributed to urban water body management plans as an external expert. He also conducts workshops to improve public awareness about these highly threatened habitats and their unique biodiversity.

Thematic areas

Climate Change, Ecosystems, Sustainability Science, Urban Ecology, Aquatic Ecology, Ecosystem Services

Education

2019 – PhD, Zoology, Department of Zoology, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India
2011 – MSc, Zoology, Department of Zoology, Pune University, India
2009 – BSc, Microbiology, Modern College, Pune University, India

Bagade, A., Kulkarni, M. R., Khandare, S., Khandagle, A., Aravind, N. A., Shinde, Y., & Padhye, S. M. (2024). Rapid declines in freshwater gastropods in Pune city, India. Biodiversity, 25(4), 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/14888386.2024.2410013
Barbosa, L. G., Kulkarni, M. R., Dantas, Ê. W., de Oliviera, D. L., Silva, F. S., & Bortolini, J. C. (2024). Temporal and spatial variations drive the phytoplankton communities in rock pools in a semi-arid region. Aquatic Ecology, 58, 659–674. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-024-10097-3
Kulkarni, M. R., Paripatyadar, S. V., Naniwadekar, R., & Joshi, J. (2023). Local-scale abiotic factors influence the organization of rock pool arthropod communities in a biodiversity hotspot. Limnology and Oceanography, 68(10), 2375–2388. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12427
Padhye S. M, Kulkarni, M. R., Pagni, M., & Rabet, N. (2023). New leptestherid clam shrimps (Pancrustacea: Branchiopoda: Spinicaudata: Leptestheriidae) from peninsular India. Zootaxa. 5264(2), 205–220. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5264.2.3
Kulkarni, M. R., Bagade, A., & Padhye, S. M. (2021). Freshwater gastropod richness patterns along an urbanization gradient in tropical India. Journal of Urban Ecology, 7(1), juab035. https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/juab035
Kulkarni, M. R. & Padhye S.M. (2021). Does restoration disturb? A case study of a shallow urban water reservoir in western India using cladoceran zooplankton. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.18.448979
Kulkarni, M. R., Padhye, S. M., Rathod, R. B., Shinde, Y. S., & Pai, K. (2019). Hydroperiod and species-sorting influence metacommunity composition of crustaceans in temporary rock pools in India. Inland Waters, 9(3), 320–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/20442041.2018.1548868
Gautam, H., Arulmalar, E., Kulkarni M. R., & Vidya T. N. C. (2019). NDVI is not reliable as a surrogate of forage abundance for a large herbivore in tropical forest habitat. Biotropica, 51, 443–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.12651
Padhye, S. M., Rabet N., Kulkarni M. R. & Pagni M. (2018). A new species of genus Eulimnadia Packard, 1874 (Branchiopoda: Spinicaudata: Limnadiidae) from India with an updated key for some Indian species. Zootaxa, 4399(3), 341–350. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4399.3.4
Kulkarni, M., Shaik, S., Reddy, Y. R., Pai, P., (2018). A new species of Megadiaptomus Kiefer, 1936 (Copepoda: Calanoida: Diaptomidae) from the Western Ghats of India, with notes on the biogeography and conservation status of the species of the genus. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 38(1) 66–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcbiol/rux097
Sabnis, N. J., Kulkarni, M. R., Padhye, S. M., & Pai, K. (2017). Hatching phenology, life history and population dynamics of the Oriental clam shrimp Eulimnadia indocylindrova Durga Prasad and Simhachalam with notes on phenology patterns in the Spinicaudata. Journal of Natural History, 51(31–32), 1835–1849. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2017.1355996
Padhye, S. M., & Kulkarni, M. R. (2017). A new Indian record and morphological variation for Eulimnadia khoratensis Rogers et al., 2016 (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Spinicaudata). Zootaxa, 4268(1) 147–150. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4268.1.10
Padhye, S. M., Kulkarni, M. R., & Dumont, H. J. Diversity and zoogeography of the fairy shrimps (Branchiopoda: Anostraca) on the Indian subcontinent. Hydrobiologia, 801, 117–128 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-017-3122-6
Bhusnale, R., Marathe, A., Kulkarni, M. R., Padhye, S. M., & Pai, K. (2016). Hatching dynamics and phenology of co-occurring large branchiopods from a small temporary pool in western India. Annales de Limnologie–International Journal of Limnology, 52: 327333. https://doi.org/10.1051/limn/2016020
Kulkarni, M. R., & Pai, K. (2015). The freshwater diaptomid copepod fauna (Crustacea: Copepoda: Diaptomidae) of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra with notes on distribution, species richness and ecology. Journal of Limnology, 75 (1). https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2015.1269
Kulkarni, M. R., Padhye, S., Vanjare, A. I., Jakhalekar, S. S., Shinde, Y. S., Paripatyadar, S. V., Sheth, S. D., Kulkarni, S., Phuge, S. K., Bhakare, K., Kulkarni, A. S., Pai, K., & Ghate, H. V. (2015). Documenting the fauna of a small temporary pond from Pune, Maharashtra, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 7(6), 7196–7210. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.o4190.7196-210

Designing measures for conservation and restoration of urban freshwater ecosystems for enhancing biodiversity, water security, and heat stress mitigation (2025)
Scoping assessment on sustainable mountain settlements across the Hindu Kush Himalaya countries (2023–present)
Replicating community-managed fish conservation zones in free-flowing rivers (2023)
Nature-Based Solutions for Urban Resilience in the Anthropocene (NATURA) (2022–present)
Understanding urban impacts on freshwater biodiversity in Bengaluru

Enabling India's urban transformation

Your guide to applying to IIHS (Institution Deemed to be) University

Educating the next generation of interdisciplinary urban practitioners, entrepreneurs and scholars

Urban transformation using interdisciplinary knowledge, learning and problem-solving

Sustainable learning, research, doing and living