Dr. B.R. Ramesh
The award is in recognition of his pioneering efforts in the application of new technologies to biodiversity conservation in the Western Ghats
Trained as a taxonomist, the distinguished biologist is Director of Research at the Ecology Department of the French Institute, Pondicherry. Most of his work focuses on the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot.His publication list includes: over 25 research papers, 6 books, 2 CD ROMS, 7 vegetation maps and 1 atlas.
Dr Ramesh’s vegetation maps of the Western Ghats and Atlas of Endemic tree species are treasured as classic references and often cited by researchers in the field of conservation biology.
He has worked on developing biological indicator values for measuring disturbance in ecosystems, developed wildlife management models using GIS for a Tiger Reserve and for several Wildlife Sanctuaries in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Besides this, he has made key contributions to strategies on biodiversity conservation. Dr Ramesh has also developed an alternative model of integrated forest management using a landscape approach that would address conservation issues as well as the livelihoods of local communities and other stakeholders.
Tell us about your early days? How did you spend your childhood?
I was born in Bangalore. However, I spent my childhood in Kadur (Chikmagalur District), my father’s native place, which I consider as my hometown. At a very young age I was interested in drama and use to enact some scenes from Mahabharatha and Ramayana along with my neighborhood friends. I studied in a municipal school. Although I was an average student, I used to be interested in nature and spent lot of time looking at Bababudangiri hill range from a vantage point close to Kadur.
What were your days in college like?
Initially I was interested in studying medicine, but destiny had another plan for me. I landed up at Central College in Bangalore to do M.Sc. in botany. Even though our professors were good, I found that the class room / lab oriented curriculum in botany was boring.
Meanwhile, I also got an opportunity to become involved in student activities. I was elected student leader (Vice President of the Central College Student’s Union) and worked towards organizing cultural activities and campaigning for cleanliness of environment.
Ironically, in spite of having very little interest in plant taxonomy in the college, in subsequent years, I became a ‘specialist’ in taxonomy particularly on trees.
Were your parents also keenly interested in biodiversity conservation?
My father, B.L. Ranganna was a Shanubogh and my mother was a housewife. Being a Shanubogh, my father was officially managing couple of villages in Kadur taluk. In these villages he is still remembered for protecting the social fabric of different village communities.
Who would you name as your mentors?
I would like to name four people.
Fr. C.J. Saldanha who trained me in plant taxonomy.
Dr. J.P. Pascal, my friend, colleague and collaborator whose able guidance in ecology and valuable insights while working together has helped me to become the person I am today.
Dr. V.M. Meher-Homji who taught me the importance of being humble in work.
And of course, Prof. K. Bawa who made me reflect upon the importance of being objective in one's approach to solving problems.
What were the bottlenecks that you faced while tackling research problems early in your career?
I did not encounter any bottleneck, as I have been in an institute with good infrastructure, right collaborators and partners. Moreover, I believe that every problem always has a solution.
Awesome isn't it? Look at the huge buttresses of Tetrameles nudiflora in this photo
Which studies would you say mark the major milestones of your research work?
Vegetation mapping, studies on endemic trees species of the Western Ghats and gap analysis for conservation.
Will you please share with us the uniqueness of the alternative model of integrated forest management using the landscape approach that you have developed?
From our studies at different levels of biodiversity assessment and monitoring, we have clearly shown that in spite of execution of working and management plans for several decades by the state forest departments, considerable forest area has been degraded and lost over a period of years.
Until recently, concern of forest management was more towards augmentation of revenue. Very low priority was given to conservation of biodiversity and fulfilling the needs of local communities. Moreover, these plans were structured around a ten-year cycle and based more on administrative zone rather than ecosystems or landscapes.
Considering the present management scenario and to promote conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources by communities and other stakeholders, we have developed a landscape approach for management through strategic landscape planning.
Would you please elaborate a little more on this?
Here, I will quickly walk you through the distinguishing features of our approach:
· Our landscape approach was based on the principles of landscape ecology, which includes heterogeneity, hierarchy and scale. As landscape ecology focuses explicitly on the spatial pattern, advanced technology in remote sensing, GIS and spatial statistics were used.
· For our study, the Western Ghats of Kerala state was divided into 19 landscape units (the adjacent photograph on your left gives a clear representation). The segregation was made based on combination of geographical regions, geomorphlogical features and ecological zones (using primary vegetation types as proxy).
Although, these landscape units have some commonalities, in several aspects like landforms, soil types, major ecosystems and land use practice they are distinct. This means that specific landscape management strategies needed to be developed.
Our idea was that these landscape units would serve as an alternative to present working plan units designed by the forest department. As we have used the landforms, the boundaries of the landscape units can be easily delineated at ground level.
In the photo below on your right we are using GPS to locate forest in the cloud laden mountains of Nelliyampathi
Two adjacent landscape units were selected (for comparative purpose) in the Western Anamalai region. Detailed studies were then conducted taking into account the spatial heterogeneity of landscape elements and underlying dynamics of ecological and anthropogenic processes.
In our detailed studies, we included three major components:
(a) geographical database of abiotic elements
(b) analysis of spatial characteristics and ecological structure of vegetation and associated selected flora and fauna
(c) human ecological appraisal of forest dependency and institutionalization of stakeholder interests for landscape level conservation planning.
Based on the above studies, we identified different spatially derived management zones. These included soil erosion prone and water conservation areas, high conservation value areas for protection, resource zone (e.g. teak, NWFP, bamboo and reed) for sustainable utilization and degraded areas for restoration.
· Threatscape of the selected landscapes was developed and the threats were prioritized based on interviews with the forest department frontline staff and other locals. For the derived management zones and also considering the overarching issues related threat perceptions, landscape strategies and action plans through institutional mechanism were developed.
The idea was that this method of study would serve as a protocol, which could then be replicated in other landscapes and elsewhere in the Western Ghats.
This work has just been published as an edited volume “Forest Landscape of the Southern Western Ghats, India – Biodiversity, Human Ecology and Management Strategies”
Tell us about the distinctive features of the Wildlife management models that you’ve worked out for wildlife sanctuaries in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka?
Particularly in Kalkad- Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India, we have developed a Geographical database of the sanctuary. This includes physical features (hydrography and DEM), bioclimate, vegetation, sampling data (using grid system) on flora and fauna and socio-economic data on settlements in and around the sanctuary.
This GIS database is being used by the forest department for strategic planning in the following ways:
· To determine the priority area for conservation
· To estimate the carrying capacity and viability of habitats, especially of the prey animals
· For watershed management particularly on steep slopes since most of the time KMTR is an epicenter of cyclonic storms
· To identify the fire risk areas
· To take up eco-development schemes based on socioeconomic impacts from the surrounding habitations.
In this photo, you can see us busy working our way through windswept mountains
You’ve developed a method of using plants as bioindicators to measure disturbances in ecosystems, would you please share with us the highlights of this landmark research?
In the Western Ghats, vegetation as a template is the visible expression of bioclimate soil and topography. However, anthropogenic activities further modified the natural vegetation into various stages of degradation and transformation. For conservation and restoration it is important to know the status of vegetation.
The photo on your left was taken under the Rhododendron tree ( Rhododendron nilagiricum) in Anaimudi National Park
Over a period of time under different projects, the French Institute had established several hundreds of 0.1 to 1 ha plots across different vegetation types, from dense to degradation stages and developed indicator values to assess the status of forests based on floristic structure (richness and diversity in evergreen / deciduous species, primary / secondary species and endemics / non-endemics) and spatial structure (density, basal area, morphological inversion points and physiognomy) of the vegetation.
For example, when a dense climax forests is disturbed, the primary and endemic species decreases and secondary and deciduous species increase. However, the proportion of changes that happen depends on the degree and agents of disturbance.
You’ve written 6 books, in order of personal preference and importance, how would you rank them?
I would like to highlight 3 books written in association with Dr. J. P. Pascal:
(A) ‘A field key to trees and lianas of the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats’ –
In any biodiversity study, identification of species is a basic requirement. The conventional floras with technical jargon and heavily based on reproductive characters are difficult to use by non-specialists in taxonomy.
In order to identify evergreen trees and lianas, we have developed the key using vegetative characters. The idea is that foresters, ecologists and students must be able to use this key at any time in the forest without the requirement of either flowers or fruits.
At present, as a continuation of this work, under the BIOTIK project (see our web site at http://www.ifpindia.org/-Ecology-.html), we are developing a computerized identification kit to identify about 600 evergreen tree species of the Western Ghats, which will be available in the form of CD ROM and as an online version by the end of 2007.
We are also planning to make it compatible with a palm held computer, so that the keys may be used directly in the field.
(B) ‘Forest map of south India’ (booklet to explain the vegetation map) – This book associated with map, is useful when you want to understand the habitat diversity and its status across the Ghats. It highlights the concepts and description of the vegetation types.
(C) ‘Atlas of Endemics of the Western Ghats (India) : Distribution of tree species in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests’-
As the name suggests, this book gives information on the distribution patterns of endemic tree species of the Western Ghats along with information on ecology and forest types. The starkly revealing information got from the atlas is that nearly 30 percent of the endemics have a narrow distribution. Given the current status of our forests, they are highly threatened and need immediate conservation measures to prevent their extinction. Researchers at IUCN refer to this atlas very often to determine the status of different endemic tree species.
What according to you are the most difficult problems that Indian policy makers must take into account while planning for the future?
In India we have enough acts and policies for biodiversity conservation, joint forest management, sustainable development of local communities etc. However, a strong commitment for the implementation and monitoring the benefit is more important than just formulating the policies. When it comes to the implementation, it should be based on sound scientific arguments and on ground realities. For example, some of our studies through gap analysis technique showed that many sanctuaries, which were created under the wildlife protection act, do not adequately cover the majority of the biologically rich and phytogeogrpahically significant areas.
When it comes to sustainable development of local communities, I would suggest that the tribals must be made an integral part of the forest management. One of our recent studies on forest landscapes clearly showed that in the forest department there are more generals than soldiers.
Due to inadequate frontline staff, forests are open to all kinds of illicit activities. Instead of just giving the rights to use the forest resources to the tribals, we should also give them the right to manage and protect the forests by incorporating them into frontline staff.
This way, by getting regular income in the form of wages, their livelihood problems would be addressed adequately. At the same time, for the tribals since the forests are their homeland, they would have greater commitment to conserve and sustainably use 
the scarce resources of the forest.
This photo was taken during one of our camps when we were busy giving a 'helping hand' to farmers at Kalarayan hills, Tamil Nadu
What advice would you like to give young people who are starting their research work in the field of ecology and conservation biology?
Indian researchers in biology and ecology lag behind their European and US colleagues who are more into molecular biology, quantitative ecology and modeling. Some of the reasons why Indian students are not so ahead in their research work may be due to obsolete curriculum, lack of expertise among the research guides, inadequate infrastructure, lack of training and more importantly access to meager funds.
The Western Ghats with a highly complex environment is an ideal site to study the processes of speciation and evolution through endemics and vicariants.
I would suggest that young researchers should go into such fundamental studies to understand how nature functions before embarking on other complex issues related to conservation, management and human dimensions, which are generally better tackled as one become a little older and more mature.
Tell us about your family? Are their interests also focused on conservation biology and ecology?
My wife writes poetry in Hindi and my daughters are swept away by the waves of information technology.
In this photo you can see my family: my wife Swarna Jyothi and my daughters- Manasa, Apoorva and Akshata.
Among your contemporaries in India and internationally, whose research do you find most fascinating?
I have listed out some international researchers whose work I consider most fascinating in the field that I am interested in:
· D.Tillman (Wisconsin University) - theoretical and experimental ecology
· Stephen Hubbell (Princeton university) – unified neutral theory (In fact we are testing this theory using our Western Ghats data sets and one paper is already accepted in Ecology journal)
· M.G. Turner (Wisconsin University)
· M. Godron (Montpellier University, France)
· D.R. Foster (Harvard University) - Landscape Ecology
· D. Barthélémy (CIRAD, France) - Tree architecture (continuing the legacy of F. Hallé)
· P.Couteron and R. Pellesier (CIRAD, France)- Quantitative ecology
In India priorities of many researchers are different and often diverse. It may be one of the reasons why we have no authorities either in ecology or conservation biology.
However, I can name a few serious researchers like:
Dr. Parthasarathy (Pondicherry university)
Dr. Umashanker (UAS)
Dr. Sanjappa (BSI) and
Dr. John Singh (WII)
What’s your philosophy in life?
When it comes to philosophy in my work, I do not ignore the heritage, values and traditions in my work. However, by infusing the modern methods or approach, I can make things more visible and useful without much compromise on the heritage value. For example as a trained taxonomist, I started with a traditional herbarium and conservative flora. Now, with the advent of information technology, I am in the process of building a virtual herbarium and flora without diluting the traditional values. These virtual formats can reach a much wider audience including para taxonomists.
What’s your favorite quotation?
No short cuts for hard work
What does receiving the Khoshoo award mean to you?
This award as a recognition of my work in conservation biology will enthuse me to work harder to promote conservation.
Thank you very much, Dr Ramesh for sharing your wisdom with us.
