Publications

Coal mines must incorporate social and ecological sensitivities from the planning stage up to mine closure to meet India’s Sustainable Development Goals. The Normalized Vegetation Difference Index (NDVI) is useful to assess the environmental impacts of mining operations on the air quality and vegetation around coal mines and monitor the progress of post-closure activities.

In this detailed study clay mineralogy and rare earth (REE) of 1.8 Billion Years old  shales of the Proterozoic Kaladgi-Badami Basin , we found  shale samples with <10% values in K-enrichment are more positively correlated with ƩLREE and ƩREE, while the shales with >10% of K-enrichment do not show any correlation with REE contents . 

Reminiscences of three decades of my research on bonnet macaques, "the performing monkey of south India" 

The accumulated losses of all State-owned power distribution companies (DISCOMs) have crossed Rs.5 lakh crore even after more than Rs.2 Trillion of their debt was taken over by the respective State Governments in FY 2015-16. The Government of India wants to pump in another Rs.3 trillion into these DISCOMs. This approach flags serious managerial deficiencies within the State-owned DISCOMs and the effectiveness of the electricity regulators in India. This report summarises the deliberations in a NIAS stakeholder consultation workshop. and the way forward for the power distribution sector.

Tool use and manufacture by wild nonhuman primates in nonforaging contexts — an important indicator of their technical intelligence — is widespread across taxa, but is sporadic in occurrence, usually being displayed by one or a few individuals within a population and typically occurring in four contexts: aggression, communication and sexual display, hygiene, and in the modification of the environment. In this review, considering the relative rarity of nonforaging tool use in the wild, we recommend the development of standardised methodologies for long-term data collection under natural conditions and the establishment of novel experimental paradigms to conduct comparative studies on captive primates. 

The article discusses the gendered implications of living close to wild Asian elephants and how gender mainstreaming in conservation practice can streamline decolonised conservation

The article discusses people's perspective of wetland degradation due to (mal)development practices and its impact on their livelihoods and life. The study is located at a peri-urban wetland in the Lower Gangetic floodplains