Naveen Babu KANDA is an affiliated doctoral student at the Department of Ecology, French Institute of Pondicherry, India since January 2023. He has a strong academic background, having previously served as a Junior Research Fellow and later as a Senior Research Fellow in the same department from 2018 to 2022. During this period, he contributed significantly to the project titled "Biodiversity Characterization at Community Level using Earth Observation Data" under the guidance of Dr. N. Ayyappan.

He holds a Master’s degree (M.Sc.) in Ecology and Environmental Sciences and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Pondicherry University. His academic journey has been driven by an unyielding passion for understanding and conserving biodiversity. His research focuses on utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as Earth Observation and Machine Learning to complement field studies, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation efforts in the central Western Ghats, India.

He is a member of global researchers’ networks: Science-I (https://science-i.org/) and Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (https://www.gfbinitiative.org/).