Current PhD Students in ATREE

1. Bharath Sundaram
Advisors: Dr.Ankila Hiremath, Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Dr.Gladwin Joseph
Date of joining: 12th Aug 2005
Research Interest: I am investigating the patterns and processes of the spread of Lantana camara, an invasive species in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary (BRT) in Karnataka, India. Lantana -a native of South America- was introduced into India during the mid- to late-19th Century as an ornamental hedge plant. Hereafter, it colonised and established in dry-to-moist deciduous forests, pasture lands, and fallow lands all over India. I am collecting data about the presence of lantana using a systematic sampling approach across BRT, replicating and taking advantage of an existing dataset on lantana presence collected ten years ago. I hope to correlate the spread of lantana using key factors such as landscape history, habitat structure for lantana, and the occurrence of forest fires. Additionally, I am also examining the role of soil seed banks as a process that provides an impetus to lantana's invasive potential

2. Chetana H.C
Advisors: Dr. T Ganesh, Dr.R.Ganesan, Dr. Robert John Chandran
[Dr.R.Ganesan, Dr. Robert Chandran]
Date of joining: 18th Jun 2007
Research Interest: Protected areas in India comprise large plantations of tea, coffee and cardamom. Due to poor market prices or due to expiry of lease of the land, these plantations are increasingly being abandoned. It is necessary to work around the complex ecological, social and legal constraints to restore such lands, enabling them to harbor biodiversity. My research will address the socio ecological constraints of restoration in abandoned tea plantations in Western Ghats, and determine what land management efforts are needed for quick restoration of native species. This study is likely to give comprehensive information to forest managers, policy makers and the government ministries for conserving such landscapes.

3. Dhara.L. Kothavala
Date of joining: 18th Jun 2007
Research Interest: Advances in the past decade for sustainability research in interdisciplinary fields such as conservation & livelihoods, social enterprise, ecological economics, natural capitalism and resilience offer ways to simultaneously address ecological, economic & social priorities. However, a systematic conceptual framework for assessing potential or existing wildlife initiatives in regard to sustainability has yet to emerge. Applying findings from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) key question, 'What options exist to manage ecosystems sustainably?' (Social equity, participative decision making, scale-appropriateness, performance indicators, education, etc.), the planned research seeks to define a stage-based framework, with illustrative narrative scenarios, relevant for endangered charismatic megafauna conservation. The initial focus will be on tiger conservation in India. The research results may offer a shared context to engage multi-sector participation in endangered species biodiversity conservation.

4. Kavitha.B
Advisors: Dr. Harini Nagendra, Prof. Bhagyaraj.D.J, Dr.Radha Kale
Date of joining: 18th Jun 2006
Research Interest: Soil is a highly complex and dynamic system, harbouring remarkable micro-floral/faunal diversity. Studies have shown that soil fauna has an effect on the structure of the soil, especially by the larger soil invertebrates, the most familiar being the earthworms. Recently scientists have started to describe a 'sphere' for earthworms or 'drilosphere' where the earthworms influence the soil, which in turn influences the soil microbial biomass. The importance of the drilosphere as a "hot spot" of microbial activity in the soil is now widely accepted. It has been proposed that earthworms have a mutualistic relationship with micro-organisms and may contribute to the maintenance of soil microbial diversity. An understanding of micro/macro-organism interactions therefore, is important in assessment of soil microflora. My work looks at the potential role of earthworms in regulating the diversity of microflora in soil systems and the beneficial or harmful effects this regulation may have on ecosystem function and plant growth in different ecosystems.

5. Rajkamal Goswami
Advisors: Dr. T. Ganesh
Date of joining: 18th Jun 2007
Research Interest: Primates are threatened due to hunting pressures. My area of focus is NE India which falls in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, and is the most biologically and culturally diverse region in India. I am trying to determine the influence of protected area systems including community owned forests on the relative abundance of primates and evaluate hunting pressure on primates across the different gradients of protection regime. The research findings will shed light on the adequacy and efficiency of the PA system for primate conservation in this region.

6. Ravi Ramalingam
Advisors: Dr. Priyan Dharmarajan
Date of joining: 4th Aug 2005
Research Interest: Ecological restoration is an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates the recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability. The success of the restoration project has to be evaluated to ascertain the achievement of the goals of the project. Though many projects aim at restoring the total ecological fidelity, attempts to evaluating the success of restoration efforts are usually limited to re-vegetation. By studying insect community response to habitat restoration efforts, I intend to develop rapid monitoring methods by identifying suitable insect surrogates for long term monitoring of effectiveness of ecological restoration efforts.

7. Savitha Swamy
Advisors: Dr. Soubadra Devy Dr.Seema P, Dr. Harini Nagendra
Date of joining: 18th Jun 2007
Research Interest: Cities across the world are expanding at a tremendous rate, shrinking the urban green spaces, and engulfing into the peri-urban green areas. Bangalore, an IT hub has people with varied socio cultural backgrounds, attitudes, mindsets and varying levels of exposure to nature. Initiating an urban conservation- conscious society will require transcending all the dimensions of such complexity. My goal is to model a resilient and sustainable system to conserve urban green spaces and the biodiversity they shelter, taking into consideration specific social, ecological and economic elements across contrasting spatial scales comprising of both active and passive users of green spaces.

8. Veerabaswant Reddy
Advisors: Dr. Jagadish Krishnaswamy
Date of joining: 18th Jun 2007
Research Interest: Virtually all the major rivers in South India originate in the Western Ghats. Changes in land-use / land-cover in the upstream catchments of these rivers are of critical importance to the millions of farmers downstream, who depend on rivers for irrigation. The potential impacts of these ongoing changes of land use are significant and varied. Intense local exploitation of forests has negative consequences on hydrological processes. It increases soil erosion, nutrient loss and sedimentation, thereby changing the microenvironment and reducing biodiversity. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of land use change on water yield / use of downstream stakeholders and also carbon sequestration. The research findings will contribute towards the Millennium Development Goals on water and carbon sequestration.

9. Vivek Ramachandran
Advisors: Dr. T. Ganesh
Date of joining: March 2006
Research Interest: Canopy organisms are highly susceptible to disturbances and it has been proposed that the damage to the canopy is an appropriate measure of anthropogenic disturbance to forests. 'Canopy birds and small mammals and their responses to habitat alteration across a disturbance gradient' is the topic I have been addressing by my doctoral work for the past two years in the Kalakad-Munduthurai Tiger Reserve in the southern Western Ghats, India. This study stems from my interest in pursuing a career in research and academic teaching in the areas of evolutionary ecology, island biogeography, and community ecology. I am interested in studying the individual and community ecology of birds and mammals from an evolutionary perspective, including long-term species survival strategies with a view towards applying this knowledge to active conservation of species and habitat. [Dr.Seema P, Dr. Harini Nagendra]