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ATREE at the Centre for Science, Technology & Society
ATREE's, Distinguished Fellow, Sharachchandra Lele, gave a public lecture on 'Rethinking Environmentalism: Linking Social Justice, Sustainability and Diversity' on February 8th, 2019 at the Centre for Science, Technology & Society of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai.
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Workshop to prioritise survey and conservation sites in Arunachal Pradesh for the Critically Endangered White-bellied Heron
ATREE organised a mapping workshop in Guwahati recently to prioritise survey and conservation sites in Arunachal Pradesh for the Critically Endangered White-bellied Heron.
The workshop looked at available information and data collected over the years. One of the key outcomes of the workshop was that 21 sites were identified in Arunachal Pradesh of which four were prioritised for immediate surveys.
The White-bellied Heron (WBH) is the world’s second largest heron and one of the most threatened birds. The workshop was organized in collaboration with Synchronicity Earth and IUCN Species Survival Commission's White-bellied Heron working group, part of the Heron Specialist Group.
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Workshop on methodologies, field tools and techniques for bats and small mammals
As part of a National Mission on Himalayan Studies project, a workshop on methodologies, field tools and techniques for bats and small mammals was organized by ATREE at Tatopani, South Sikkim recently. Nine species of bats and three species of small mammals were documented during the field component of the workshop.
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Lantana Elephants to Tour the World to Spread the message of Co-existence
ATREE in collaboration with the Real Elephants Collective and Elephant Family is part of a project where 101 elephants made of Lantana Camara, an invasive species, will be displayed in different cities in the world to raise awareness about the impact of invasives on elephants in the Nilgiris.
The Lantana elephants were made by Soliga craftsmen with support from ATREE and other organizations. This initiative is also an attempt at generating sustainable livelihoods for communities impacted by the proliferation of Lantana.
The project also aims to spread the message of eco-conservation and peaceful coexistence of man and animals. As part of the project, ‘Co-Exist’, an exhibition, displaying the elephants, was held from February 7th to February 28th, 2019 at South Beach, Kochi Fort.
Subsequently, the elephants will be displayed in Bangalore, New Delhi this year. In 2020, they will be taken to England where they will be displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Parks.
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ATREE at the University of Cambridge
ATREE Fellow, Priyanka Jamwal, was in UK from February 2nd to February 15th, 2019 on a Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funded seed grant. The objective of the trip was to share the outcomes from the GCRF funded project - 'Bio Electrochemical System (BES) for wastewater treatment and monitoring' with scientists at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge.
In addition to this, she also made short visits to the London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Department of Chemistry, Edinburgh University. The objective of these visits was to identify research needs and develop research proposals in the area of water quality management. She also shared research outcomes from recently completed and ongoing research work in the Water and Soil Lab at ATREE.
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World Wetlands Day Celebrations by ATREE-CERC
ATREE-CERC celebrated World Wetlands Day in Alappuzha recently. A street play, 'Tathvamasi', highlighted threats faced by the Vembanad wetland system. A one-day policy workshop on the role of local self-governments in the implementation of wetland legislations was also organized.
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ATREE at the Indo-German Conference on Rural Urban Interface of Megacities- A Space of Transitions in Agriculture, Economics and Society
ATREE Fellows, Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Soubadra Devy and Veena Srinivasan were part of the Indo-German Conference on Rural Urban Interface of Megacities- A Space of Transitions in Agriculture, Economics and Society, organized at the University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore recently.
The conference through five major sessions - Urbanisation-related transitions in land use, Planning, policies and governance of urban and regional development, Agricultural production and food supply, Consumption, attitudes and choices, and Ecosystem services and sustainability in the rural-urban context explored concepts on rural-urban transitions and research approaches from different disciplinary perspectives. The Conference also showcased current work by Indian and German partners.
Veena Srinivasan was the keynote speaker in the session- 'Urbanization-related transitions in land use' and spoke about - 'Sustainability of land and water transitions in urbanizing regions.'
Jagdish Krishnaswamy spoke about 'Climate Change Mitigation and Ecosystem Services in Semi-Arid regions' and Soubadra Devy was also part of some of the sessions.
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ATREE at the National Seminar on Water Resource Management and Sustainable Development
ATREE Fellow, Bejoy Thomas, gave the keynote address at the national seminar on Water Resource Management and Sustainable Development, organized by the Department of Economics, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram recently.
His talk centered around the normative underpinnings of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the challenges and potentials for social scientists in IWRM.
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ATREE at the Kumadvathi First Grade College and the University of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology
ATREE Fellow, G Ravikanth, was a resource person for the Science Academy's refresher course on 'Multi-omic Applications in Medicinal Plant Research' held at University of Trans-disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology, Bengaluru, on February 12th and February 19th, 2019.
He also conducted a workshop on biodiversity on February 8th and February 9th, 2019 at Kumadvathi first-grade college, Shikaripura, Karnataka and a workshop on 'Using IBIN Database for Conservation and Management of Forest Resources' at UAS, GKVK, Bengaluru on February 15th, 2019.
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ATREE at Kere Habba 2019
ATREE Fellow, Veena Srinivasan was at the Kere Conference 2019, - ' Re-imagining Lakes, an Innovative Challenge' where she spoke about the importance and role of science in managing Bengaluru's lakes.
The Kere Conference was part of Kere Habba 2019, a celebration of Kaikondrahalli Lake, a model eco-restoration site. The aim of this Habba and Conference was to present holistic and sustainable ways of engaging with lakes. It also aimed to examine partnership models that would empower various stakeholders to become transformational entities in lake management. ATREE also put up a stall at the Kere Habba where citizens had an opportunity to learn about Lakes Dashboard and saw a demonstration of smartphone based water quality testing.
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TN Khoshoo Earthian Award
ATREE, in honour of its co-founder and renowned scientist, Late. Dr. TN Khoshoo presented the TN Khoshoo Earthian Award to Government Model School, Gopiballavpur, Jhargram, West Bengal and College of Engineering, Pune. The award, aimed at fostering excellence in sustainability thinking and action among young students, was presented by Dr. Kamal Bawa, Founder President, ATREE and Dr. Nitin Pandit, Director, ATREE at the 8th edition of the Wipro Earthian Awards.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Bawa said, "Sustainability is going to be the defining theme of the 21st century and we need to take a wider view of our natural ecosystems and biodiversity."
The teams from schools demonstrated their understanding of biodiversity and water through a combination of activity and essays. The teams from colleges submitted their entries on the themes of water, waste, and transportation in the urban context.
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Jalapadom Plastic Cleaning Competition
Jalapadom Habitat Learning, an environmental education program of ATREE-CERC conducted a plastic cleaning competition in schools in the Vembanad region recently. Students made posters, organized a ‘Plastic Strike’ and plastic-waste cleaning drive in their schools.
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Workshop on Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Researcher
The Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies, ATREE organized a two-day workshop on 'Becoming an Emotionally Intelligent Researcher' on February 12th and February 13th, 2019. The workshop which was conducted by Dr. Shamim Modi, who presently chairs the Centre for Law and Society under the School of Law, Rights and Constitutional Governance at TISS. She has been extensively engaged in conducting training and workshops for IPS, IFS, IAS and CISF personnel on the issue of emotional intelligence for effective, efficient and sensitive functioning.
The workshop was based on the premise that to be an effective, ethical and sensitive researcher one has to work towards enhancing one's emotional competencies to deal with diverse situations in a stressful environment so as to be able to make decisions.
The two-day workshop was based on learning about personal and social competencies through experiential exercises. It discussed the relevance of experiential learning in various research situations. It also stressed on the need to develop personal and social competencies of self-awareness, self-regulation and interpersonal communication skills to refine one's role as a researcher.
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ATREE's Abi T Vanak analyses what the law says about controlling the stray dog menace in India. Read More... |
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India recently claimed the rate of carbon sequestration in its forests and croplands jumped by 50 per cent between 2010 and 2014. ATREE's Sharachchandra Lele discusses why these estimates need a relook. Read More... |
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ATREE's Sunita Pradhan is one of the lead authors of the book chapter - 'Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in the Hindu Kush Himalaya' from the book ' Hindu Kush Himalaya( HKH) Assessment'.
The HKH assessment is the fist comprehensive assessment of this region and ATREE researchers were part of the 300 odd strong team which contributed to this book.
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