Roshni Kutty is a researcher and writer working at the intersection of biodiversity governance, community-based conservation, and environmental policy in India. Her work focuses on the legal and institutional frameworks that shape conservation practice, with particular attention to community conserved marine and coastal areas, Forest Rights Act, and participatory governance models. She has engaged extensively with field-based research in coastal and forested landscapes, examining how local communities negotiate conservation, livelihoods, and ecological change. She identifies herself as a political ecologist. Her interests include strengthening community rights within environmental law, improving implementation of biodiversity legislation, and advancing inclusive conservation approaches that balance ecological integrity with social justice. Through research, writing, and collaborative engagement, she seeks to bridge policy frameworks and lived realities in India’s diverse socio-ecological contexts.
She holds a PhD in Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies from Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore. Her thesis examined the ‘Socio-institutional systems that influence varied implementation of collective forest rights in the Western Ghats of Karnataka’. She completed her Masters and Bachelors Degrees in Botany from Pune University.
She currently coordinates the marine program of ICCA Consortium-South Asia.