August 7-10, 2012, JN Tata Auditorium, IISc Campus, Bengaluru (Bangalore), India

This international conference is being organized in India to highlight the urgency of biodiversity conservation in Asia ahead of the 11th Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held in India in October 2012. Biodiversity Asia 2012 will bring together researchers, policy makers, managers, students, teachers, NGOs, activists, and others working towards the conservation of Asia’s biodiversity.

To learn more visit http://www.biodiversityasia2012.org/

The Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) – Bangalore aims to facilitate interaction, exchange of research ideas and methods, building contacts and building capacity of young researchers in all aspects of conversation science. As a sister conference to SCCS-Cambridge, SCCS-Bangalore focuses on attracting student participants, primarily from countries in South and South-east Asia until 2011 and includes Africa this year.

SCCS-BNG 2012 will be held on 02-04 August 2012 at the JN Tata Auditorium, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. To learn more visit http://www.sccs-bng.org/

2011 – M. Sc. Marine Biology,University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

2008 – B. Sc. Marine Sciences (Fisheries minor), University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

RESEARCH INTEREST

I am interested in the study of resilience in marine ecosystems, the key to better managing our marine resources. In particular, I’d like to study things that influence marine communities like the engineers and the drivers of change as well as the events that are most vital like recruitment and disturbance. Currently as a research assistant at the Dakshin Foundation I’m involved in the community-based study of tuna baitfish populations in Lakshadweep. This work forms a part of the larger community based biodiversity monitoring program at Dakshin.

PUBLICATIONS

Wahle, R.A., Tshudy, D., Cobb, S.J., Factor, J. and Jaini, M. 2012. Infraorder Astacidea (Marine Lobsters). In, F.R. Schram & J. C. von Vaupel Klein (eds.), Treatise on Zoology:
Crustacea Decapoda, Vol. 9A. Brill, Leiden.

Jaini, M. 2009. Herbivory on Bonaire’s coral reefs. In, Steneck, R.S. & Arnold, S.N. (eds.), Status and Trends of Bonaire’s Coral Reefs, 2009 and Need for Action. Report to the
Bonaire National Marine Park (STINAPA).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR PROJECTS

I worked with Pitchandikulam Forest Consultants on the Adyar Poonga project, a state funded eco-restoration project to restore the Adyar creek and estuary in Chennai. As part of the Environment Education team, I developed material for and carried out various on-site and school programs.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Given my interest in the area of environmental law and governance, my research at Dakshin involves socio-legal studies on the impacts of coastal laws and policies on traditional fishing communities and the dynamics between traditional governance systems and the modern state. Currently, I am developing a project to understand the dynamics between the various governance institutions, leaders and representatives that are present in the fishing communities around the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve, their capacity to deal with various conflicts and their level of participation in the spaces provided by existing coastal policies.

2009 – M.Sc Wildlife Science, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
2006 – B.Sc Zoology, Loyola College, Chennai

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR PROJECTS

I have been working on the olive ridley sea turtles population in Orissa since November 2008.  My work here focuses mainly on monitoring the nesting population of ridleys in orissa which includes maintaining a hatchery to relocate about 30 nests of olive ridley’s per season. This has been done in order to look at the implications of climate change and the temperature dependant sex determination seen in this particular species. My work involves regularly interfacing with the local forest department staff and holding training programmes for their field staff regarding the methodologies involved in maintaining hatcheries as well as census techniques during the annual arribada census.

I have also been involved in several other field activities including sattelite tracking, offshore density estimations of turtles, interacting with local communities and NGO’s. At present I am working with Aarthi Sridhar compiling information for a book on traditional marine fishing practices on the Orissa coast.

RESEARCH INTERESTS 

I am interested in animal-habitat interactions, especially with regard to nesting turtles and beaches. With the current project work I have also been gaining more interest in working with fishing commmunities and looking at their interactions with the turtles and the development of more participatory activities in conservation.

PUBLICATIONS

Articles

M. Muralidharan. 2012. Beaches that change. Talking Turtles: The sea turtles of India blog.

Sajan John, M. Muralidharan and Ema Fatima. 2011. Rushikulya Arribada 2011. Care 4 Nature

M. Muralidharan and Adhith Swaminathan. 2010. Environmental Cues and Synchronised Nesting in Olive Ridleys. Marine Turtle Newsletter

M. Muralidharan and Adhith Swaminathan. 2010. Mysterious Synchronous Nesting of Turtles. Care 4 Nature.

Msc thesis: Nest Site Selection and Effects of Anthropogenic Changes To the Rushikulya Nesting Beach, Orissa on Olive Ridley Sea Turtles. 2009, WII, Dehradun.

QUALIFICATIONS

2011 – Master of Research (MRes) Marine and Freshwater Ecology and Environmental Management, from the University of Glasgow, UK.

2010 – MSc Zoology (Oceanography and Fishery Science), from Institute of Science, University of Mumbai.

2008 – BSc (Honours) Zoology and Botany, from St Xavier’s College, University of Mumbai.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PREVIOUS PROJECTS

While at the Institute of Science I studied the freshwater fish fauna of Raigad district, Maharashtra. An interest in infrared camera traps led me to produce a dissertation on thermography in grey seals in Scotland. Furthermore in 2011, I assessed the effectiveness of the Nabq Managed Resource Protected Area in terms of predatory fish population distributions.

RESEARCH INTERESTS 

I am interested in determining sustainable solutions to coral reef associated fisheries. Currently, I am profiling the fisheries of the Andamans to establish critical areas for research and conservation of this multifaceted system.

PUBLICATIONS

Papers

1. Rupesh Raut, Unmesh Katwate, and Sahir Advani (in press) An overview of fish fauna of Raigad district, northern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa.
2. S. Advani, D. M. Aherne, L. N. Rix, M. A. Alwany, D. M. Bailey (in press) Resumption of artisanal fishing in a Red Sea no-take zone leads to changes in fish distribution and community structure. Marine Ecology Progress Series.

2005. M.Sc Marine biology, from Centre for Ocean and Island Studies (currently Known as Department of Ocean Science and Marine Biology), Pondicherry central University, Port Blair, Andamans.

2003. B.Sc Zoology, from Sacred Heart College, Cochin, Kerala

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PREVIOUS PROJECTS

I worked with Wildlife Institute of India (WII) as a research fellow and was associated with the National Institute for Coastal and Marine Biodiversity (NICMB), a satellite centre of WII in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. My initial project was to monitor the illegal domestic trade of endangered and threatened marine fauna all along the Indian coast. Along with, I worked for the status report preparation of Horse shoe crabs along the Orissa coast. Later, I shifted my interest to marine turtles and I joined the Olive ridley satellite tracking project in Orissa. There I monitored the off-shore dynamics of breeding turtle congregation and nesting beach geo-morphology of Rushikulya rookery, along with monitoring the migratory pattern of pre and post nesting olive ridley sea turtles

RESEARCH INTERESTS

With 6 years of research in monitoring threatened and endangered species, my interest mainly lies in endangered species management. My species of interest are marine turtles, marine mammals, elasmobranchs, mollusks and Horse-shoe crabs. I am also interested in community involved endangered species conservation and participatory fishery resource management. Better understanding of issues and involvement of local stakeholders can mitigate conflicts and it will help in formulating effective conservation strategies.

PUBLICATIONS

Papers

1. P.M.Mohan, Sumitro Sen and Sajan John(2008) A report on rate of sedimentation on corals off Port Blair, Aftermath Tsunami. Journal of applied geochemistry 10(2):108-114.
2. Sajan John (2010) Observation of a Whale Shark Rhincodon typus (Orectolobiformes: Rhincodontidae) in the offshore waters of Rushikulya, Orissa, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(5): 896-897.
3. Sajan John, R. Suresh Kumar, B.C. Choudhury & K. Sivakumar (2010) Observations of juvenile green and hawksbill turtles along the southern Orissa coast, India. Indian Ocean Turtle Newsletter 12:9-12.
4. Adhith.Swaminathan and Sajan John (2011) Pseudonesting behaviour by the Olive Ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829) during mass nesting at Rushikulya, Orissa, India. Herpetology Notes. 4:225-227.
5. Sajan John, Satyaranjan Behera, K. Sivakumar, B. C. Choudhury and Subrata Kumar Behera (2011) Observation on a sub-adult Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) turtle from Gahirmatha marine sanctuary, Orissa, India. Herpetological Bulletin. 116:1-3

Articles

1. Sajan John (2010) Marine curio trade in India. 2010. Care 4 Nature, December 2010.pp 10-11
2. Sajan John, M. Muralidharan and Ema Fatima (2011) Rushikulya Arribada 2011. 2011. Care 4 Nature, April 2011.pp 25-27

Common Voices Issue 8:  

YETI 2011 was held at  Guwahati (December 13 – 15, 2011). To learn more about this exciting event, go to http://www.meetyeti.com/