Event Details

---

Bionest –IASST under the umbrella of Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology organized an Online Talk by Dr. Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Scientist-Wildlife Institute of India on the occasion of International Day of Biological Diversity on 22nd May 2021  (Saturday) at 3pm onwards. This event was a part of the Celebration of the 75 th  Year of India’s Independence “Aazadi ka Amrut Mahotsava”

It was an immense pleasure to celebrate International Day of Biological Diversity because out of the 17 hotspots of biodiversity recognized in the world India has two of them-The Western Ghats and Eastern Himalaya. Most importantly, Indo Burma region of which Assam is a Part --is recognized as the cradle of Speciation due to rich diversity and identification of some world’s biologically threatened ecosystem.

This year, the theme for International Day of Biological diversity as proclaimed by United nations  is -We Are Part Of The Solution# For Nature

            The Webinar was coordinated by Dr. Tania Paul Das Manager (Science & Technology) of BioNest-IASST and it commenced with the inaugural statement of the Honourable Director-IASST, Prof. Ashis Kr. Mukherjee. Prof. Mukherjee gave a vivid picture of the contribution of IASST as an institute towards conservation of Biodiversity.  He also emphasized that Biodiversity and Ecosystem research is a thrust area of this institute and IASST already have preserved some rare orchid plants in the Orchid garden. He also provided a glimpse of the upcoming proposal for construction of a medicinal plant garden in the IASST premise.

Dr. Ramesh Krishnamurthy delivered his talk on Biodiversity and Technology-towards integrated nature culture solutions. He did his Master’s in Wildlife Biology from AVC College under Bharathidasan University Tamil Nadu and Ph.D in Forest Ecology and Environment from Wildlife Institute of India. Dr Krishnamurthy has been working at WII since 1995 and joined WII as a faculty member in 2008.

He is also adjunct faculty at the University of British Columbia Canada. Dr. Krishnamurthy is a Country Representative for Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. He is also Founder & Secretary, Indian Regional Association for Landscape Ecology as well as Member of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM); Species Survival Commission (SSC); World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA).

His professional interests include Landscape ecology, Remote sensing, Geographic information system-GIS, Quantitative methods, Species Distribution Modelling, Biostatistics, Radio-telemetry, Wildlife population estimation and monitoring.

He opined that India has 30% of World’s Flora and 7.31 % Global Fauna. He believed that there should be Knowledge Management and Science policy interface for information storage and its proper dissemination.

He gave insights on different technology such as Remote sensing, Camera traps, GPS etc. used for combating and managing Ecological Disaster like Climate change, habitat loss, pollution, over exploitation and lastly epidemics.

There were total 30 participants and the event ended with the vote of thanks given by Dr. Devasish Chowdhury, Associate Professor, IASST.