Dr. Jagdish Krishnaswamy

Jagdish Krishnaswamy has a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India and a MS in Statistics and Decision Sciences and a  Ph.D in Environmental studies, Duke University, North Carolina, USA.   His research and teaching interests include ecohydrology, landscape ecology, conservation planning, ecosystem services and applications of bayesian approaches in understanding complex changes in the environment over space and time. 

He has coordinated the establishment of instrumented catchments in the Western Ghats and in the Himalayas to study the impacts of land-cover and climate variability on hydrological processes.  Jagdish has recently become involved in defining and assessing ecological flow requirements of rivers in the Western Ghats and the Ganga basins with as special focus on endangered species such as the gharial and river dolphin.  

His work on climate science and climate change includes vegetation response to climate and land-cover change in India, Central America and Africa.  Over the years, his work has contributed to various policy and actions such as  the declaration of the Western Ghats as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the investment of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in the Western Ghats and a special report on Himalayan Springs to the Niti Ayog.  He has designed capacity building and field hydrology training courses for aquatic ecologists and grass roots NGOs.   

He is a Coordinating Lead Author of the Special IPCC Report on climate change, desertification, degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. 

Some recent publications 

Jumani, S., Rao, S., Kelkar, N., Machado, S., Krishnaswamy, J. and Vaidyanathan, S., 2018. Fish community responses to stream flow alterations and habitat modifications by small hydropower projects in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems

Hill, M.J., Hassall, C., Oertli, B., Fahrig, L., Robson, B.J., Biggs, J., Samways, M.J., Usio, N., Takamura, N., Krishnaswamy, J. and Wood, P.J., 2018. New policy directions for global pond conservation. Conservation Letters, p.e12447.

Atkore, V., Kelkar, N. and Krishnaswamy, J., 2017. Assessing the recovery of fish assemblages downstream of hydrological barriers in India's Western Ghats. River Research and Applications, 33(7), pp.1026-1035.

Chappell, N.A., Jones, T.D., Tych, W. and Krishnaswamy, J., 2017. Role of rainstorm intensity underestimated by data-derived flood models: Emerging global evidence from subsurface-dominated watersheds. Environmental Modelling & Software, 88, pp.1-9.

Clark, B., DeFries, R. and Krishnaswamy, J., 2016. Intra-annual dynamics of water stress in the central Indian Highlands from 2002 to 2012. Regional Environmental Change, 16(1), pp.83-95.

Krishnaswamy, J., Vaidyanathan, S., Rajagopalan, B., Bonell, M., Sankaran, M., Bhalla, R.S. and Badiger, S., 2015. Non-stationary and non-linear influence of ENSO and Indian Ocean Dipole on the variability of Indian monsoon rainfall and extreme rain events. Climate Dynamics, 45(1-2), pp.175-184.

Krishnaswamy, J., John, R. and Joseph, S., 2014. Consistent response of vegetation dynamics to recent climate change in tropical mountain regions. Global change biology, 20(1), pp.203-215.

Some other key publications

Krishnaswamy, J., Bonell, M., Venkatesh, B., Purandara, B.K., Rakesh, K.N., Lele, S., Kiran, M.C., Reddy, V. and Badiger, S., 2013. The groundwater recharge response and hydrologic services of tropical humid forest ecosystems to use and reforestation: Support for the “infiltration-evapotranspiration trade-off hypothesis”. Journal of Hydrology, 498, pp.191-209.

Bonell, M., Purandara, B.K., Venkatesh, B., Krishnaswamy, J., Acharya, H.A.K., Singh, U.V., Jayakumar, R. and Chappell, N., 2010. The impact of forest use and reforestation on soil hydraulic conductivity in the Western Ghats of India: implications for surface and sub-surface hydrology. Journal of Hydrology, 391(1-2), pp.47-62.

Anand, M.O., Krishnaswamy, J., Kumar, A. and Bali, A., 2010. Sustaining biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes in the Western Ghats: remnant forests matter. Biological Conservation, 143(10), pp.2363-2374

Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K.S., Ganeshaiah, K.N. and Kiran, M.C., 2009. Quantifying and mapping biodiversity and ecosystem services: utility of a multi-season NDVI based Mahalanobis distance surrogate. Remote Sensing of Environment, 113(4), pp.857-867.

.Anand, M.O., Krishnaswamy, J. and Das, A., 2008. Proximity to forests drives bird conservation value of coffee plantations: implications for certification. Ecological Applications, 18(7), pp.1754-1763.

Mehta, V.K., Sullivan, P.J., Walter, M.T., Krishnaswamy, J. and DeGloria, S.D., 2008. Impacts of disturbance on soil properties in a dry tropical forest in Southern India. Ecohydrology, 1(2), pp.161-175.

Das, A., Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K.S., Kiran, M.C., Srinivas, V., Kumar, N.S. and Karanth, K.U., 2006. Prioritisation of conservation areas in the Western Ghats, India. Biological Conservation, 133(1), pp.16-31.

Recent Grants 

Fostering inter‐disciplinary scholarship for conservation and sustainable development in the Himalayas

National Mission for Himalayan Studies, Ministry of Forests, Environment and Climate Change, Government of India. 2017-2019