MAHE awarded the Institute of Eminence status

ATREE congratulates the Manipal University of Higher Education (MAHE) for being recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) by the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry recently. MAHE is one amongst six other educational institutions awarded the IoE tag by the GoI.

ATREE’s doctoral programme is affiliated to MAHE and its recognition as an IoE is a matter of great pride and joy to all of us here at ATREE.
Sonam Wangchuk wins Ramon Magsaysay Award
 
ATREE  congratulates Sonam Wangchuk for winning the Ramon Magsaysay Award this year. Sonam Wangchuk was our last year's TN Khoshoo memorial award winner and we are extremely happy that he has been accorded this great honour.
New Discovery
New land snail species Dicharax (?) bawai named after Professor Kamal Bawa

We are very happy to share that a new land snail species Dicharax (?) bawai was discovered in the Malai Mahadeshwara Hills, Karnataka. This new species is named after, Professor Kamal Bawa, our founder, who has contributed immensely to reproductive and conservation biology.

The snail is found in a narrow range of altitude from 900-1010 meter and only in dry deciduous forests. Aravind Madhyastha, Fellow, ATREE and Barna Pall Gergely from Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary described this new species of land snail.
Events
ATREE-CERC conducts training program for houseboat staff

The houseboat industry has witnessed an exponential growth in recent decades. The houseboat industry’s poor waste management has led to several environmental problems. Improper disposal of inorganic solid wastes has contributed to pollution and adversely affected the Vembanad ecosystem.

In order to bring attitudinal change amongst the houseboat staff,  ATREE Community Environmental Resource Centre (CERC), formulated a pedagogy titled 'Being Responsible' to train houseboat staff. The training program was inaugurated on 6th July 2018 by the sub-collector of Alappuzha, Krishna Teja (IAS). As part of the program,130 houseboat staff have been trained in three batches. This initiative was organised in association with Kerala Houseboat Owners Federation (KHOF) and supported by Antrix Corporation. 
 
The training taught houseboat staff responsible hospitality practices, safety precautions and first aid. It also gave them information on ecological significance and biodiversity of Vembanad ecosystem. The program aimed to make the staff well-informed, so that they could communicate the importance of local culture and ecological significance of the ecosystem to the visitors to enhance their visitor experience and create a win-win situation for all.

The sessions were led by a host of experts -  Jojo T.D, Project Coordinator at Atree, Ashish Mathew George, Senior Program Officer at ATREE, Dr. Saroop Roy, Assistant Professor at Kerala Institute of Travel and Tourism Studies,  Biju B., Chief Engineer at Pollution Control Board, Alappuzha, Dr. Prasanth Narayanan of MG University and Adv. T.K. Ashokan, Retd. Port Conservator in the Dept. of Ports.
 

ATREE at the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists
 


Shoibal Chakravarty, Fellow, ATREE, attended the World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists at Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference, held between 25th to 29th June is a global meeting of the world's environmental economists and is held every four years.

Dr. Chakravarty gave a talk titled the 'Social Cost of Coal' and presented his joint work with Prof. E Somanathan of Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. This paper made a detailed estimate of the pollution and health costs of electricity from coal and showed that electricity from renewables is less expensive than that from coal if pollution costs are included. The talk highlighted that a true accounting of the social costs of coal-powered electricity would make it uneconomical to build new coal plants after 2025-2030.

Dr. Chakravarty also organized a thematic session titled 'Sustainable Electricity for All' which focused on energy efficiency and electricity from renewables in developing countries.
ATREE at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research 

Durba Biswas, Fellow, ATREE, recently gave a talk on -  ‘Managing sanitation in Future Cities: groundwater and sanitation interlinkages in peri-urban Bangalore' at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research. The talk was based on a  paper co-authored with Priyanka Jamwal, Fellow, ATREE.

The talk, drawing from the paper, emphasized on the need for an adequate understanding of all potential sources of contamination to meet the goal of safe drinking water. 

Durba spoke about the study which used an interdisciplinary approach to map out social creation of pollution and its impact on water quality. The study mapped the sources and pathways of all potential contaminants in a peri–urban town and suggested policy interventions based on the source and the type of contaminants. The approach of the paper could be a potential roadmap to achieve the twin goals of universal sanitation and access to safe domestic water.
ATREE conducts two-day motivation workshop for Soliga students in BR Hills

A two-day motivation workshop and scholarship distribution event was held in BR Hills for Soliga students on 21st and 22nd July 2018. Around 150 students participated in the workshop. 64 students received scholarships from ATREE. The function was inaugurated by B.B. Cauvery, Deputy Commissioner of Chamarajanagara district. The workshop was organised by District Soliga Abhivrudhi Sangha, Taluk Soliga Abhivrudhi Sangha, ATREE, VGKK BR Hills and Samatva Trust.
ATREE conducts Northeast bioresources training workshop
 
ATREE in partnership with Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) conducted the first technical workshop for the project - 'Bioresource and Sustainable Livelihoods in Northeast India' from 26th to 29th July 2018 at the Institute for Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) in Manipur. The workshop titled - 'Quantitative assessment and mapping of plant and selected animal taxa diversity and biological resources of Northeast India'  was attended by 70 research scholars and 10 principal investigators (PIs) from the Northeast Institutes.

The workshop highlighted the use of computational tools and biodiversity data from inventory, assessment and monitoring to gain insights about how human use of bioresources and climate change affect the biodiversity of the Northeast region. In particular, the workshop provided training to all the research staff on the grid-based sampling of flowering plants and the use of biological resources in the grids allotted to the Team. Staff and PIs working on non-flowering plants and selected animal taxa were also trained on the use of transects and on taxa-specific methods for documenting and assessment. The workshop also covered the data collection process, curating and archiving data in a central database besides providing training on using photography to document biodiversity.
 
ATREE at Transformation Agenda 2020
 
Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Senior Fellow, ATREE, was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the topic ‘India’s climate imperatives’ at the Transformation Agenda 2020 hosted by Mint and Danfoss India.

The panel discussed India’s pathway for achieving its climate change commitments both in terms of securing its developmental future as well as preserving the global environment. Dr Krishnaswamy highlighted the need to judiciously plan how urbanisation, linear intrusions and biodiversity can co-exist. He further added that India needs to look at climate change from the perspective of both mitigation and adaptation and not just mitigating emissions alone. The panel also included experts from IIHS, WRI and IISc.
ATREE at the India Research Management Initiative (IRMI) workshop 
 
Indira Singh, ATREE's Development Officer gave a presentation at the India Research Management Initiative (IRMI) workshop conducted by  Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, held on 26th July 2018, at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru. The workshop served as a platform to discuss the role of Research Managers across research institutions in Bengaluru. It analysed the needs of Research Managers and aimed to build a strong base for this community in India so as to facilitate effective grants management and fundraising.
Announcement
 
Opinion
"The National Board of Wildlife’s recommendation that state governments use Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code while dealing with wildlife emergencies may be useful but is not enough," says Divya Gupta, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ATREE . Read More
Priyadarsanan Dharmarajan, Senior Fellow, ATREE and K. Divakaran Prathapan in a commentary argue that while synthetic biology is overtaking bioprospecting as a means of discovering new molecules, bona fide scientific research is suffering due to the legal restrictions posed by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). Read More
Obituary
In the News

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/law-protect-biodiversity-678524.html

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/bellandur-lake-an-orphaned-waterbody-no-one-wants/article24325278.ece

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/changing-climate-has-left-tahrs-on-the-brink/articleshow/64846320.cms

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/news/state/after-fish-and-frog-new-species-of-snail-discovered-in-karnataka/articleshow/64860308.cms

https://researchmatters.in/news/changing-climate-could-soon-drive-nilgiri-tahrs-out-mountains-finds-study

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/developmental-issues/concept-of-compensatory-afforestation-is-seriously-flawed/articleshow/64855333.cms

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/070718/bengaluru-more-funds-needed-to-study-lake-pollution.html

https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/unthinking-projects-242912

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/nilgiri-tahr-to-face-drastic-habitat-loss-due-to-climate-change-61024

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/faith-in-the-forest/616667.html

https://english.manoramaonline.com/news/kerala/2018/07/09/in-kuttanad--this-underwater-wall-kills-fish.html

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/climate-change-threatens-the-nilgiri-tahr/article24392414.ece

https://www.connect4climate.org/story/hiking-himalayas-empowering-villages-improve-livelihood-and-fight-climate-change

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/flying-into-trouble-harrier-birds-decline-as-grasslands-disappear/article24427528.ece

https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2018/07/16/dolphin-population-declines-in-indias-only-dolphin-sanctuary/

http://geographical.co.uk/nature/wildlife/item/2780-canine-killers

https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/news/india/dolphin-population-declines-in-indias-only-dolphin-sanctuary/articleshow/65023685.cms

https://thewire.in/environment/kadar-forest-sustainable-harvest-elephants/amp/?twitter_impression=true

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/selected-for-global-schools-program/article24467154.ece

https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/wildbuzz-a-minority-s-blackmail/story-yBngY5yM0UpMVJrg6AeswN.html

https://researchmatters.in/news/how-citizen-science-helping-save-keralas-fish-species

https://thewire.in/the-sciences/how-laws-to-protect-biodiversity-backfired-on-scientists-trying-to-save-it

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/i-felt-like-a-child-in-a-toy-store-in-that-forest-kamaljit-s-bawa/article24532489.ece

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/pushing-bats-off-their-holy-roosts/article24541406.ece

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/few-indian-engineers-are-opting-for-civil-and-environmental-engineering/articleshow/65198365.cms

https://india.mongabay.com/2018/07/31/traditional-knowledge-of-a-northeast-community-holds-answers-to-the-misunderstood-practice-of-shifting-cultivation/

 
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