Shaleen Attre

About

Shaleen has been working in the field of wildlife conservation for over a decade, strategising outreach and communications for conservation challenges in multiple landscapes, and has worked extensively on illegal wildlife trade, while being a part of organisations like TRAFFIC India, WWF-India and Wildlife Trust of India. She is a co-founder of IndianSnakes, a voluntary outfit which is dedicated to snake conservation in India with a focus on snakebites, a Neglected Tropical Disease which annually claims between 81,000 – 138,000 human lives globally, with over 400,000 people suffering permanent disabilities. India accounts for almost half the figures with over 50,000 human deaths and countless snakes’ killed in retaliation or fear, every year.

Shaleen’s PhD project will focus on studying human-snake “conflict” in India, evaluating drivers of snakebite, and identifying potential mitigation measures to reduce human and snake mortalities. The impact of the project will be manifested through better-informed decision-making, treatment and risk mitigation measures that take account of local and regional socioeconomic drivers and the needs of local communities. She had given a DICE talk, held by the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent, in August 2019, highlighting the issue of snakebite in India and the work being done by IndianSnakes.

Shaleen has a BA (Hons) and an MA in English from the University of Delhi. She was awarded the Chevening Scholarship in 2018 to pursue an MSc in Conservation and International Wildlife Trade from DICE at the University of Kent. Findings from her MSc dissertation on international demand and availability of paint brushes made from mongoose hair (a protected species in India) were covered by some UK and India based media outlets such as Telegraph, Daily Star and IndiaSpend.

Supervision

Shaleen is supervised by Prof Richard Griffiths and Dr Ian Bride at DICE, School of Anthropology and Conservation