The Woman Leading Kashmir’s Green Awakening

A Kashmiri ecologist brings science and community together to protect the valley’s vanishing biodiversity.

- Aashiq Hussain Andrabi

On a foggy morning in Srinagar, a small group of women huddle near the edge of a wetland, notebooks in hand, listening to birdsong and watching ripples on the water.

They're part of a nature education program started by Dr. Mehreen Khalil, a Kashmiri conservationist who believes that saving the environment begins with empowering people, especially women.

After earning her PhD in Ecological Sciences from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Dr. Mehreen returned home to work where conservation is often seen as someone else's job.

She founded the Wildlife Research and Conservation Foundation (WRCF) in 2018 to change that.

Through the foundation, she brings together local communities, students, and policymakers to bridge the gap between science and everyday life.

Her journey began deep in the Himalayas, where she spent years studying langurs.

But what started as curiosity about a rare primate soon became a lifelong mission to reconnect people with the natural world. “I realized that conservation doesn't start in labs or offices,” she says. “It starts in the hearts and hands of people who live closest to nature.”

Today, WRCF runs training programs that teach women ecological literacy and leadership, turning kitchen waste into compost, classrooms into nature labs, and curiosity into community change.

Dr. Mehreen also collaborates with scientists across India, consults for various conservation projects, and advocates for women in STEM fields.

In this interview, she talks about Kashmir's vanishing wetlands, melting glaciers, and how empowering women could transform the region's environmental future.

You started your journey as a primatologist, studying Himalayan langurs. Let’s begin there. What was so special about them?

Oh, the Himalayan langurs are incredible. They live in some of the harshest, steepest terrains of the Himalayas and still manage to thrive.