Palatty Allesh Sinu

Post-Doctoral Fellow



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Education

  • Ph.D. Insect Conservation Biology (2001 - 2005) University of Calicut, India. Thesis title: "Impact of various land-use corridors on insect pests and their arthropod natural enemies in rice paddy agro-ecosystems in Sringeri, Central Western Ghats, India" Univeristy of Calicut, Kerala, India
  • M.Sc. Applied Zoology (1998 - 2000), University of Calicut, India. Specialized in Taxonomy of parasitic Hymenopterans and Biological control.
  • B.Sc. Zoology (1995 - 1998), Christ College, University of Calicut, India. Minor : Botany and Chemistry.
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Research Interests

  • Impact of anthropogenic pressures on endangered ecosystem services like pollination ecology and wild pollinators
  • Factors affecting regeneration dynamics in secondary and community-managed forests like Soppinabetta of Western Ghats
  • Taxonomy of insects in general, particularly Carabid systematics (Coleoptera: Carabidae)
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Experience

September 2005 - present
Post-doctoral Fellow of ATREE and DST young Scientist

  • Pollination ecology of Cardamom in Western Ghats and Eastern Himalaya
  • Sustainability of leaf litter harvesting operation on regeneration dynamics of Soppinabetta forests of Sringeri in central Western Ghats.
  • Evaluating the efficiency of community-managed forests in conserving wild orchid diversity in Western Ghats India

February 2001 - August 2005
Research Associate, ATREE, Bangalore, INDIA

  • Influence of different land use corridors on insect pests and their natural enemy guilds in rice paddy agro-ecosystem in Western Ghats, India.
  • Impact of Land use changes on ground beetle diversity in Western Ghats, India.
  • Inventory of lesser-known taxa in Rajiv Gandhi National Park, Karnataka, India. Taxa undertaken were Ground beetles, Ants, Dung beetles and Parasitic Hymenopterans.

September 2000 - January 2001
Lecturer, Department of Zoology, Maharajas college, Ernakulam, Kerala, India


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Affiliations / Positions / Memberships

  • Systematic Entomology Research Students Association, Calicut, India
  • Royal Entomological Society, UK
  • British Ecological Society, UK
  • Society for Conservation Biology, USA
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Grants / Awards / Honors

Major Research Grants

  • Impact of leaf litter harvesting on seed predation of tree community of Soppinabetta forests of Western Ghats. Funding agency: Department of Science and Technology, DST, Government of India. Amount (September 2006 - August 2009)
  • Evaluating the ecological impacts and sustainability of leaf litter harvesting on tree community recruitment of community-managed Soppinabetta forests of Western Ghats, India Funding Agency: Committee for Research and Exploration, National Geographic Society, USA. (November 2006 - October 2007)

Other Grants & Awards

  • Young Scientist Award (DST- Govt. of India)
  • Ernst Mayr Grant (MCZ - Harvard University USA)
  • Research Equipment Grant (Idea Wild, USA)
  • Summer Research Fellowship (Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore)
  • Study grant from Southwest Research Station of AMNH, USA

Honors
Two new species of parasitic wasps are named after me by Prof. T.C. Narendran

  1. Elachertus sinui (Family Eulophidae)
  2. Scenocharops sinui (Family Ichneumonidae)
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Select Publications

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Complete Publications

Ecology papers

  • Sinu, P.A. and K.R. Shivanna. 2007. Pollination ecology of cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) in Western Ghats, India. Journal of Tropical Ecology 23: 493 - 496. http://www.atree.org/Cardamom.html
  • Sinu, P.A., Nasser, M. and Priyadarsanan, D.R. 2006. Feeding ecology of two economically important tiger beetles from Paddy agro - ecosystems in central Western Ghats, India, Biotropica 38 (4): 500 - 507. http://www.atree.org/tiger_beetle.html
  • Sinu, P.A. and K.R. Shivanna. 2007. Pollination biology of large cardamom (Amomum subulatum): An important crop of Eastern Himalayas. Current Science 93 (4): 548 - 552. http://atree.org/Amomum.html
  • Sinu, P.A., Nasser M. and Rajan, P.D. 2007. Host searching behaviour and potential of an aquatic ichneumonid pupal parasitoid of rice case-worm (Parapoynx stagnalis) in an upland rice paddy agro-ecosystem of the Western Ghats, India. Biocontrol Science and Technology, 17 (10): 1037 - 1045. (Taylor and Francis Publication). http://atree.org/nymphula.pdf

Taxonomy papers

  • Narendran T.C., S.K Thomas and P.A. Sinu 2006. A revision of Indian species of Parurios Girault with a new record of Papuopsia Boucek (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) from India. Journal of Bio-Science 14: 17 - 23.
  • Narendran, T.C., K .Sudheer, P.A. Sinu and Priyadarsanan, D. 2006. A new genus of Chalcididae (Hymenoptera:Chalcidoidea) from Karnataka,India, Journal of Ecobiology 18 (2) 155 - 159.
  • Narendran, T.C., K.Fousi, P.Girish Kumar, S.Santhosh and P.A.Sinu 2005. A taxonomic study of Anaprostocetus Graham (Hymenoptera :Eulophidae), Oriental Insects 39: 273 - 280.
  • Narendran T.C. and P.A. Sinu. 2003. A new genus and a new species of Eulophidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from India, Zoos' Print Journal 18 (3): 1031-1033.
  • Narendran T.C., Hayat, M. and P.A. Sinu 2003. A new species and a new record of genus Australomymar Girault (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) from the Oriental Region, Zoos' Print Journal 18 (4): 1059-1060.
  • Narendran T.C, P.A. Sinu and Priyadarsanan, D.R. 2003. A new genus and a new species of Tetrastichinae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) from India. Uttar pradesh journal of Entomology 23 (2): 113-116.
  • Narendran,T.C., Kumar, P.G., Santhosh, S. and P.A. Sinu 2005. A Study on the taxonomy of Diglyphomorphomyia Girault (Hymenoptera:Eulophidae) of India, Journal of Advanced Zoology 26 (1): 29 - 34.
  • Narendran,T.C., Kumar, P.G., Santhosh, S. & P.A. Sinu. On a new genus and a new species of Eulophidae (HYMENOPTERA:CHALCIDOIDEA) from the paddy fields in Karnataka, Zoos' Print Journal. (in press)

Technical Reports

  • Sinu, P.A. (2003). Impact of current afforestation programs on parasitic hymenopteran diversity in Western Ghats, India (Technical Report to Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, India), pp.15.
  • Sinu, P.A. (2005). On types of Genus Chlaenius (Chlaenini: Carabidae) of Indian subcontinent available at Natural Hisory Museum, London (Technical report to Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard, University, USA), pp.62.
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Meetings / Conferences / Symposiums / Workshops

Oral presentation as primary author

  • Biodiversity tools and Techniques. In Entomocourse 2007, The National workshop on Insect Systematics and Conservation, organized by Prof. TC Narendran Trust for Animal Taxonomy at MES College, Nilambur, Kerala 26 - 31 Dec 2007.
  • Role of farmer-managed Soppinabetta forests, Central Western Ghats, in conserving orchid diversity. In the Symposium Biodiversity Conservation in the Tropics: Issues, Concerns and Strategies, International Tropical Ecology Congress 2 - 5 Dec. 2007, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India.
  • Pollination ecology of the economically important large cardamom, Amomum subulatum, in the eastern himalaya of India. Inaugural conference of the Asian chapter of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Mahapalipuram, Chennai, India. (March 2007)
  • Ecological impacts of leaf litter harvesting in a community-managed forest system in Western Ghats, India. British Ecological Society Annual meeting held at University of Oxford, UK. (September 2006)
  • Land-use management, agro-landscapes and invertebrate conservation: Studies from Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas in India. Invited speaker of Department of Agroecology, University of Gottingen, Germany. (July 2006)
  • Evaluating the Effectiveness of Community Managed Soppinabetta forest in conserving Insect Biodiversity in Western Ghats, India. British Ecological Society Annual meeting held at University of Hertffordshire, Hatfield, UK. (September 2005)
  • Impact of land use changes on parasitic hymenoptera (Hymenoptera: Aculeate) diversity in Sringeri landscape in the central Western Ghats, India. Royal Entomological Society Annual meeting & International symposium on Insect Conservation Biology, ENTO 05, London, at University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. (September 2005)
  • Foraging Strategies and Feeding guild of Tiger Beetles in Rice Paddy Agro-ecosystems in Western Ghats, India. Royal Entomological Society Annual meeting & International symposium on Insect Conservation Biology, ENTO 05 Royal Entomological Society (RES), London, at University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. (September 2005)
  • Host searching behaviour and potential of an Ichneumonid parasitoid of Nymphula depunctalis (Guen) pupa in rice paddy agroecosystems in central Western Ghats in India. IX European Workshop on Insect Parasitoids, EWIP, at Cardiff University, South Wales, UK. (September 2005)
  • Feeding Ecology of two tiger beetle species in paddy agro-ecosystems in central Western Ghats with a pilot study on their bio-controle potentials. National Symposium on Biodiversity and Insect Pest Management at Loyola College, Chennai, India. (February 2004)
  • SINSORTER, a novel method to sort all arthropod samples from pitfall traps. Animal Taxonomy workshop held at Sacred Heart College, Ernakulam, India. (January 2005)
  • Foraging strategies of Cicindela whithilli and C. flavomaculata in rice paddy agroecosystems in central Western Ghats, India. 29th Conference of Ethological Society of India held at Banagalore University, Bangalore (February 2005).
  • Impact of an invasive species Lantana camara L. on ground insect diversity in moist and dry deciduous forests of BRT wildlife sanctuary, India. 28th conference of Ethological Society of India held at KMTR, Tamil Nadu. (Febrary 2003).
  • Diversity and habitat preference of Dipterans in Sringeri and Nagarahole forests of Karnataka. 27th Conference of the Ethological Society of India held at Thiruvananthapuram, India. (March 2002).
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Others

Museums / Institutes Visited

  • Department of Agroecology, University of Gottingen, Germany
  • Natural History Museum, London, UK
  • Hope Museum of Natural History, Oxford, UK
  • NMNH, Smithsonian Institute, USA
  • Entomology Museum, Forbes building, University of Arizona, USA

External Reviewer of peer-reviewed journals

  • African Journal of Ecology (Blackwell publication)
  • Biosystematica
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Contact

Email: sinu_pa@yahoo.com, sinu@atree.org
Mobile: 00 91 94487 44766
Sringeri Field Station: 00 91 8265 251624

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