ATREE
Offices |
Bangalore
Office
659 5th A Main, Hebbal
Bangalore 560 024
Tel: 080-2353 3942,
2353 0069
Fax: 080-2353 0070 |
Delhi
Office
B-80 Shivalik
New Delhi 110 017
Tel/Fax: 011-266 93299
266 93190 |
Eastern
Himalayas Office
Bungalow No.2, Bhujiapani
Bagdogra 734 422
Tel/Fax:0353-255 1110
255 0093 |
Advisory
Board |
Dr.
Kanchan Chopra
Dr. Anil K. Gupta
Dr. R.A. Mashelkar
Dr. Jagmohan Maini
Dr. Peter Raven |
Executive
Board |
|
Dr.
K.S. Bawa (chair)
Dr. K.N. Ganeshaiah
Dr. S.N. Rai
Dr. R. Shailaja
Dr. R. Uma Shaanker
Mr. Darshan Shankar
Dr. Gladwin Joseph
(ex-officio)
|
Executive
Staff |
Dr.
Gladwin Joseph
Ms. Suparna Biswas
Dr. Bibhab Talukdar
Mr. Manoj Dabas |
|
| |
| INAUGURATION
OF A SCHOOL BIODIVERSITY GARDEN IN BANGALORE |
 |
A
biodiversity garden emphasizing butterflies was formally inaugurated
on July 31, 2004 at the Delhi Public School (DPS), Yelahanka,
by the Director of ATREE and the Delhi Public School Chairman,
Mr. Narendra Kumar. In a unique way, pigeons or balloons were
not released at the inauguration, but butterflies! thanks to
Dr. Chandrasekhar and his team of UAS. ATREE has a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) with Delhi Public School to utilize the
garden as a learning resource for other schools in Bangalore.
It also will serve as a model garden for other schools. The
garden has been designed for butterflies, but also highlights
other unsung wildife, such as ants, dung beetles, dragonflies,
snails, frogs, birds etc. Important features of the garden include
a Butterfly Trail, an Interpretation Center, a Hanging bridge
and an Observation Point. An easy to use field guide and map
is also being designed, which will help children to explore
the garden on their own and identify the butterflies.
This garden is a part of ATREE's butterfly outreach initiative
in collaboration with the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (India),
and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore which
is part of the Butterfly park project funded by the Department
of Biotechnology, GOI.
|
| -
Joseph Vattakaven |
| |
| INDIA’S
ONLY MEGA BUTTERFLY PARK |
|
ATREE
is honored to be part of a one-of-a-kind Butterfly park
that is coming up at the Bannerghata National Park on
the outskirts of Bangalore, India. The project is sponsored
by the Department of Biotechnology, Government Of India
and is spearheaded by the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK),
India and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS).
Construction is in full earnest and the Chief Conservator
of Forests, Mr. Suresh Kumar, also member secretary ZAK
(India) who is in charge of the project is confident that
it will be completed by December 2004. Scientists at UAS
are developing mass rearing technologies of butterflies
in addition to molecular fingerprinting of the rare species.
Dr. Soubadra Devy and her team at ATREE are developing
educational and outreach activities centered on the butterfly
as a brand ambassador for biodiversity. ATREE will build
awareness using the Butterfly park as an education resource
center for students and civil society. |
| |
| AWARDS |
ATREE
President, Kamal Bawa was honored by the Association for
Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) at the annual
meeting of ATBC , which was held in Miami, Florida, from
July 12 to 15, 2004. The ATBC is the largest professional
association of tropical biologists. Each year ATBC recognizes
an outstanding tropical biologist whose contributions
merit election as Honorary Fellow of ATBC. Kamal Bawa
was recognized as the Honorary Fellow this year. He was
cited for his contributions to basic research in tropical
biology and conservation, the establishment of ATREE ,
and extensive service to ATBC. Kamal Bawa served as President
of ATBC in 2000. |
|
| SHORT
COURSE IN CONSERVATION BIOLOGY |
|
The ATREE sponsored 5th conservation
biology course for post graduate and graduate students
was held from June 14-28, 2004 in Bangalore. The objective
of the course was to give the participants a flavour of
conservation biology and offer them the choice to decide
and pursue a carrier in Conservation biology. Similar
to the previous courses this was a residential program
with 5 days of intensive lectures in Bangalore and 7 days
of field sampling at ATREE’s BRT field station.
This was followed by 2 days of analysis and presentation.
Participants came from across the country and a few from
Srilanka. A total of 15 participants were selected from
over 60 applicants.
Several
conservation biologists, ecologists and economists from
various institutes in Bangalore and outside delivered
lectures. The field component of the course largely pertained
to forest ecology and threats that forest ecosystem are
currently facing. A brief orientation was given to Biligirirangan
hills, its biodiversity, indigenous people living there
and role of local organizations in conservation in the
hills. The students chose a problem that could address
issues relating to threats to biodiversity, community
impacts on conservation and general distribution of biodiversity.
The faculty reviewed the student projects before collection
of data was done. Several interesting projects on the
issue of coffee plantations and its influence on local
biodiversity, distribution of herpetofaunal diversity,
debarking by elephants, habitat use by gaur and several
others were conducted. The data was then analysed by the
students and presented to the panel at Bangalore. On successful
completion of the course, the students were given a certificate
and a best participant prize |
| -
T. Ganesh |
|
| |
| TOWARDS
AN EVERGREEN REVOLUTION |
Agroforestry
practices as old as agriculture itself got neglected for
the sake of mechanization and commercialization in many
parts of the world. Need for soil friendly agriculture
and de-linking excessive dependence on forests point towards
the contemporary relevance of agroforestry systems. Agroforestry
began to attain prominence in the late 1970s, when the
international scientific community realized its potential
in the tropics and recognized it as a ‘practice
in search of science’. Over the past 25 years significant
progress has been made in building a scientific foundation
for the design, installation, and management of agroforestry
systems. The need of the hour is to expand these gains
to better meet societal demands.
Participants from 82 countries gathered in Orlando, Florida
for the 1st World Congress of Agroforestry in the last
week of June 2004. India was represented by officials
from MoEF, professors from different universities and
Dr. Seema P. from ATREE. The plenary sessions discussed
Improvement of Rural Livelihoods, Enhancement of the Environment
and Landscape, Agroforestry Science and Education, Policy,
Social, and Institutional Issues and agroforestry in the
next 25 Years. Keynote speakers Norman Borlaug, MS Swami
Nathan and PK Nair expressed the view that the technological
breakthrough of the Green revolution could be sustained
across regions and crops by popularizing agroforestry
methods.
The Congress declared that the adoption of agroforestry
systems and technologies during the next decade will greatly
enhance the achievement of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals. The ‘Orlando Declaration’
called upon the international community, international
organizations, international donor community, private
enterprise sector, non-government organizations, conservation,
scientific and educational communities and governments
to foster synergies and collaboration on dry land management
in countries with low forest cover, to spark an evergreen
revolution. |
–
Seema P. |
| |
| VACATION
TRAINING PROGRAM ON BIO-RESOURCES IN DELHI |
ATREE
successfully conducted the Vacation Program on Bioresources-2004”
from May 26-June 21, 2004 for the schools from Chandigarh
and adjoining areas.
Supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government
of India, the program was implemented in coordination
with Department of Botany, Panjab University (Chandigarh),
Institute if Microbial Technology, Chandigarh and Dr.
Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (Solan).
The program was divided into four modules. The first three
modules were coordinated by Panjab University, IMTECH
and Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry
respectively. The fourth module was conducted at Churdhar
Environmental Facility and was coordinated by ATREE- Delhi.
Dr. S. Natesh, Adviser, NBDB, Department of Biotechnology,
Govt of India, was the Chief Guest at the Valedictory
function held at Panjab University. Prizes were given
out for overall best work, for Quiz and for the 1st, 2nd
and 3rd positions. Participants and their parents also
shared their views and experience about the program
|
|
| BAMBOOS
& RATTANS OF WESTERN GHATS |
 |
While
several groups have addressed the conservation concerns
of bamboo and rattans in the past, it is rarely that different
perspectives ranging from the spatial distribution and
population biology to socio-economics and livelihoods
are covered in one breath as is presented in this book.
Illustrated profusely with data |
sets and boxes to highlight certain critical issues, the
book is easy to be followed by people from different backgrounds
including foresters, scientists and policy makers. An
exhaustive bibliography of bamboo and rattans in the Western
Ghats is also provided. Besides, the book also includes
a CD offering a digital guide to bamboo and rattans of
the Western Ghats. The CD includes a query-based bibliography,
species-specific maps of distribution, snapshots of images
of bamboo and rattans and an interactive species identification
key for rattans. This book is published jointly by ATREE,
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)
and the University of Agricultural sciences. It is authored
by R. Uma Shaanker, K.N. Ganeshaiah, (UAS and ATREE) K.
Srinivasan (ATREE), V.Ramanatha Rao, and L.T. Hong (IPGRI).
It will be available in October 2004. |
-
Srinivasan K. |
| |
| NEW
STAFF AT ATREE |
Ms.
Aarthi Sridhar has joined ATREE as a FORD Research
Fellow. She has a Masters degree in Social Science from
the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
Ms Awani Saraogi has joined ATREE Delhi
as a Program Associate in the plaNETwork (education) program.
|
| |
| NEWS
IN BRIEF |
Mr.
Manoj Dabas, Regional Director of ATREE was invited by
the Embassy of The United States of America, New Delhi
to attend a 3 Week International Visitors Program (IVP)
on Urban Environmental Issues. The IVP is organized by
the State Department, Government of United States of America.
IVP brought together 19 professionals from 19 countries
to expose them to the efforts in the US to manage and
improve urban habitats as well as to interact with individuals
in governmental and non-governmental organizations workjng
on related issues. The program was modular and took the
participants to Washington, Montana, Philadelphia, Dallas,
Chicago, Boston and Puerto Rico. Mr. Manoj Dabas was also
invited by University of Toronto, to attend the conference
in Economics of Sustainable Forest Management at Toronto
from May 19-23, 2004.
-
ATREE was one of the 6 institutions short-listed in the
southern region for the Indira Gandhi Parayavaran Purashkar
award. It is a national award given to an institution
that has made a significant contribution to the environment.
|
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|
| STUDY
TOUR OF SRI LANKA FOREST OFFICIALS |
ATREE
in collaboration with the Karnataka Forest Department,
successfully concluded a two week study tour for the Sri
Lanka forest officials who traveled through Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh from July 18 to
August. This was the third study tour of its kind. |
| PRESENTATIONS
BY ATREE STAFF |
Seema
Purushothaman ‘Economic Analysis of Stakeholder
Perceptions on Land Use Options in the Peripheries of
Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests of Southern India"
in the first World Congress of Agroforestry. The paper
was presented in the session on Economic Analysis on 28th
June 2004 at Orlando, Florida, USA. 27 June to 02 July
2004. Dr. Seema Purushothaman was selected as the one
from India to receive a Dell laptop along with 7 others
from 7 different countries.
Aravind, N.A. ‘Geographical distribution patterns
of land snails of Western Ghats, India at World Congress
of Malacology’ at the University of Western Australia,
Perth. 11-16 July, 2004.
Jagdish Krishnaswamy presented papers at the IUFRO Forest
Hydrology workshop entitled “Forests and Water in
Warm, Humid Asia” in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. 10-12
July 2004. He also participated in 3-day field study excursion
to Danum Valley Field Centre between 13-15 July 2004.
Gladwin Joseph served as one of the panelist discussing
the topic “Eco-development Vs Economic Development:
The dilemma” at the Infosys corporate campus in
Bangalore on June 28, 2004. The panel discussion was the
keynote event at the launch of their `Ozone week’
which seeks to reach out to a large segment of their staff
to sensitize them on urgent issues that face the environment
movement in India.
|
|
| RECENT
PUBLICATIONS |
Shanker,
K., J. Ramadevi, B. C. Choudhury, L. Singh and R. K. Aggarwal.(2004).
‘Phylogeography of Olive Ridley Turtles Lepidochelys
olivacea on the East Coast of India: Implications for
Conservation Theory’, Molecular Ecology 13: 1899-
1909.
Gladwin
Joseph and Rick.G. Kelsey. (2004). ‘Ethanol Synthesis
and Aerobic Respiration in the Laboratory by Leader Segments
of Douglas-Fir Seedlings from Winter and Spring’,
J. Expt.Bot, 55:1095-1103.
Uma
Shaanker, R., Aravind, N.A. and Ganeshaiah, K.N. (2004).
‘Forest Management for Conservation, in Burley,
J.J., J. Evans and J. A. Youngquist (eds) Encyclopedia
of forest sciences, Vol. II. pp. 215-224, London: Elsevier
Science.
Ravikanth,
G., Uma Shaanker, R., Ganeshaiah, K.N. and Vasudeva, R.
(2004). ‘Molecular Analysis of Semicarpus kathalenkanensis
(Anacardiaceae)- A newly Described Species from the Myristica
Swamps of Western Ghats,
India’, The Indian Forester, 130: 101-104.
Aravind,
N. A., Uma Shaanker, R. and Ganeshaiah, K.N. (2004). ‘Croak,
Croak, Croak: Are There More Frogs to be Discovered in
the Western Ghats?’ Current Science, 86: 1471-1472. |
| GRANTS
RECEIVED |
Uma
Shaanker, R., Gladwin Joseph and Ganeshaiah, K.N. ‘Enhancing
Livelihood of Marginal Forest Communities in Karnataka
and Tamil Nadu by Promoting the Utilization of Lantana
as a Substitute for Bamboo’. A grant from Department
of Biotechnology, Govt. of India.
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