His research focuses on social cognition and science communication. He studies the cognitive factors influencing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and autobiographical memory of both adults and children from urban and rural areas of India.
Over the course of the year 2020-21, Animal Behaviour and Cognition Programme members worked on various projects funded by national (DST, ISRO) and international (ERC) organisations.
The need to protect the geological heritage by introducing legislation
This report was prepared in response to the Forest Advisory Committee’s (FAC) recommendation to conduct “a multiple seasonal replicate study on biodiversity assessment” of the 3097 MW Etalin Hydro Electric Project (HEP) in Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. The review has found that the study was conducted in under five five months from February to June 2018 and cannot be considered as a ‘multiple seasonal replicate’ study as it does not represent three seasons in Arunachal Pradesh.
Sayan is a PhD scholar interested in the aspects of human-wildlife relations; interdisciplinary dimensions of wildlife conservation in India; gender, environment and development; political ecologies of rural livelihood and environmental conservation, and environment and development in northeast India. For PhD, Sayan is examining behavioural and political ecologies of human-wild elephant interactions in the state of Assam, India with a critical focus on gendered interactions, impacts, adaptations and knowledge formations.
Other than PhD work, Sayan had looked into nature of community participation in wildlife conservation projects in the states of Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, India (2017-18); traditional hunting practices, bushmeat consumption patterns and cross-border wildlife trade in Nagaland, India (2016); impacts on local community due to degradation of a critical urban wetland in Kolkata, India (2019-20).
In 2021, Sayan has published two co-authored peer reviewed journal articles and one book chapter in an edited volume. The journal articles are titled : (1) On the inadequacy of environment impact assessments for projects in Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park of Goa: A peer review (Journal of Threatened Taxa), (2). ‘Everyday- Conservation’: A study of actors and processes in an elephant conservation project in Assam, India (Human Dimensions of Wildlife). The book chapter is titled as: Understanding borderlands through elephant corridors in the Yunan-Bengal-Burma Landscape (Routledge India)
Sayan has been awarded Junior Research Fellowship by University Grants Commission. For PhD fieldwork, Sayan has received grants from The Rufford Foundation, Inlaks Foundation and Idea Wild Foundation.
Prior to joining PhD, Sayan Completed B.E in Metallurgical and Material Engineering from Jadavpur University (Kolkata) and worked as Manager at Tata Steel Limited. With a shift in career, Sayan completed M.A in Ecology, Environment and Sustainable Development from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati.