Seema Lokhandwala

Seema Lokhandwala is an engineer-turned-conservation scientist with over a decade of experience in integrating technology, behavioral ecology and community engagement to address human-elephant conflict in India. Her work exemplifies how context-driven, frugal innovations from the Global South can build resilience and enable both people and elephants to thrive amid climate and conservation challenges.

As the Founder and Principal Investigator of the Elephant Acoustics Project, Seema has led the development and deployment of acoustic detection and deterrence systems that help local communities anticipate and safely respond to elephant movements, thus demonstrating how accessible technology can bridge the gap, and not just create barriers, between people and wildlife. She is adept in signal-processing, bioacoustics and linguistics, creating India’s first database of Asian elephant vocalizations and designing field-ready bioacoustic monitoring tools. Seema is equally at home in the field as in the lab, making community engagement and participation a cornerstone of her work in order to devise solutions that are practical, efficient and locally relevant.

Seema has secured the support of leading conservation funders through her targeted and effective advocacy for humane alternatives to elephant translocation and rapid implementation of deterrence systems. She has also mentored early-career scientists and has spoken on popular platforms to spread awareness about conflict mitigation. She has published her research findings in peer-reviewed journals, and her work has been featured in Nature, Mongabay, CNN’s Call to Earth and the Zoo series by Dublin Zoo, among others.