Salim Ali Centre for Orinithology and Natural History - Staff details

Welcome to the Home page of Dr. P. Pramod

Nature Education Officer

	Nature education activities of sacon
	Research interests & experience
	List of publications

Nature Education Activities of SACON

Nature Education at SACON is envisaged with the following objectives.

1. Develop the SACON as a Resource Centre which, students, teachers, other environmental educators and the public can depend with credibility.

2. Communicate the information and knowledge to students, teachers and public through their involvement in studies and action.

3. Publish the Education materials on Nature education in electronic as well as print media targeting various sections of the society.

The activities

1. Celebrations:

Every year two regular celebrations will be conducted. One will be for the World Environment Day on 5th of June and the second, Salim Ali Birth Celebration on 12th November. The Salim Ali Memorial Lecture will be one of the Major functions in the second celebration. These platforms of celebrations will be the occasions for the general public to keep in touch with the Centre and exchange their well wishes and concerns.

2. Competitions:

In connection with the celebrations two sets of the Nature competitions will be conducted every year. One State level Quiz programme for the schools and college students will be conducted just before the World Environment Day celebration. Essay, Elocution (both English and Tamil), Paintings on Nature themes and competitions on bird watching, butterfly watching and plant identification will be conducted just before the Salim Ali Birth Day celebration. Quiz programme for the Wildlife Week Celebration will be open for all. But Salim Ali Birth Day celebration competitions will be restricted to the SACON Nature Club Network members. In this a Rolling Trophy will be given to the overall excellence.

3. Field Trips:

The opportunity to directly interact with wonders of nature with a person who can interpret and explain them is on the best ways of nature education. The students are taken in the nature trails and tracts. The students will be encouraged to write a small report on what they have learned. At the occasion of Salim Ali Birth Day celebration during November, prizes will be given to the best reports in an year. The students will be encouraged to carry out their field observation even after the field trips.

4. Lectures and Environmental Campaign:

Popular and scientific lectures on the various natural phenomena, new scientific findings and conservation issues etc will be conducted at SACON and elsewhere. The lectures of SACON faculties will be arranged in the educational institutions, villages and research institutions. Lectures by various experts in the field of ecology and environmental conservation will be arranged at SACON also. Campaigns and discussions on significant environmental issues will be initiated as and when required.

5. Information System:

As a first step of the development of SACON as a Resource Centre for Ornithology and Natural History in India, a computerized information system on Ornithology and Natural History is being developed. The information will be available for the public through World Wide Web, electronic multimedia and print productions.

6. Nature Education through field studies:

A selected set of colleges will be encouraged to start a special programme on campus ecology with a title 'state of the campus' programme. In this, students and teachers will be given training to undertake the study on the flora, fauna and the ecological status monitoring of their campus. They will conduct this study as the part of their Nature Club Activity and come up with a report on the ecological health of their campus every year. This programme eventually will lead to a co-ordinated programme of local level assessment of the ecosystem health with the help of college teachers and students. This will be a trigger to the environmental awareness creation and dissemination. Every year there will be prizes for the best reports submitted.

8. Publication of SACON NEWS:

The publication of Newsletter -SACON NEWS- is one activity of Nature Education Division. Every issue will be having one lead article, and some regular features like From Director's Desk, Research News, Publications by SACON faculties, Seminars and Workshops, Library News, Nature Education activities, Forthcoming events and so on.

9. Preparation of Education Materials:

The Nature Education Division will be involved in the production of many different kinds of Education materials. It may include presentation materials such as Power-point presentations, Audiovisual packages, Books, Electronic products like multimedia CD-ROMs.

10. Nature Interpretation Centre:

A Nature interpretation Centre has to be developed in SACON campus. The present proposed design of the interpretation Centre has the following components. Three galleries based on three basic themes of interests, an Audio Visual Lecture Hall, a discovery room, a temporary exhibition hall, a small natural history library and a hall of exhibition on the life of Dr. Salim Ali. A nature trail, a walk-in-aviary, a mobile education unit and a publication unit will also be the parts of the overall design of the Centre. At least one phase of the development of the Nature Interpretation Centre should be completed with in five years.

11. Research on Natural History and Biodiversity Conservation:

Scientific research on the biodiveristy distribution and the Natural History of organisms will be conducted. The changes of the species composition in the successional changes of the bird and butterfly communities will be studied in the SACON campus and Anaikatty forests. The research fellows will be involved in the programme leading to their Mphil/Ph.D dissertation. The co-variations in the trends of diversity changes between the taxa will be subjected to the serious consideration.

	RESEARCH INTERESTS & EXPERIENCES
	Areas of Interest: Natural History, Biodiversity, Conservation Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Community ecology, Landscape Ecology, Population Ecology and Ecological History.
	Doctoral Research: Field monitoring of bird communities and plant communities in three different habitats in Silent Valley forest, Palakkad, Kerala. Under the supervision of Dr. D.N. Mathew, University of Calicut, Kerala, India.
	Thesis Title: Ecological studies of bird communities in Silent Valley and neighbouring forests
	Post Doctoral: As Research Associate under the guidance of Prof. Madhav Gadgil, CES, IISc, Bangalore (1995-1998) and as a Fellow in Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore (1998-2000).
		Biodiversity inventorying and monitoring in Western Ghats: Involved as the leading member of the team which is collaboratively doing inventorying and monitoring the populations of Angiosperms, mammals, birds, butterflies and ants in the 20 localities in Western Ghats, India
		Bird community studies in Western Ghats: Study in the spatial and temporal patterns of bird communities of Western Ghats and their pattern in relation to different kinds of habitats.
		Macroecology and meta-analysis: Compiled a national computerised database on birds and mammals of India from the scattered literature. At present using this for the recognition of patterns in distribution and conservation priorities.
		Documenting People's Biodiversity Registers A Nation-wide programme on the documentation of people's knowledge on biodiversity for sustainable development and conservation. This has been conducted in 8 states so far about more than 60 villages.
		Prioritization of species and habitats for conservation: Evaluating conservation importance of species and habitats. Conservation prioritization of Indian mammals and birds completed.
	Others:
		Experience in multivariate statistical analysis of data and interpretation in community ecology. Experience in using different kinds of softwares, database creation and management.
		Experience in conducting National workshops, discussion meeting and training camps for Biodiversity inventoring and monitoring studies.
		Worked as Associate editor for Project Lifescape (A Indian Academy of Sciences initiative for popularizing biology in colleges) for two years.
		Reviewer for the community and population ecology papers for India's leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, Current Science and Journal of Biosciences, Journal of Indian Institute of Science and Resonance.

	LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
	Full Papers
	1. Pramod Padmanabhan and Yoram Yom-Tov. 2000. The breeding season and clutch size of Indian passerines. IBIS vol.142(1): 75-81.
	2. Krishnamegh Kunte, Ajith Joglekar, Ghate Utkarsh and Pramod Padmanabhan. Patterns of butterfly, bird and tree diversity in the western ghats. Current Science, 1999, Vol. 77:577-586.
	3. Pramod P. 1999. Bird community structure in the three different vegetation types of Silent Vallley and Adjacent forest area. In SILENT VALLEY ? Whispers of reason. Kerala Forest Department. Thiruvananthapuram. Pp 327-330.
	4. Pramod P, N.V.Joshi, Utkarsh Ghate and Madhav Gadgil 1997. On the Hospitality of Western Ghats habitats for bird communities. Current Science vol 73, pp. 122-127.
	5. Pramod P, R.J.R.Daniels, N.V.Joshi and Madhav Gadgil. 1997. Evaluating bird communities of Western Ghats to plan for a biodiversity friendly development. Current Science vol 73, pp. 157-162.
	6. Pramod P. 1999. Bird diversity of Western Ghats environs of Karnataka. In Biodiversity of Western Ghats environs of Karnataka. Biodiversity Initiative and Bhuvanedra Nature club, Karkala, Karnataka.
	7. Pramod P, Ramakrishnan Palat, D.N. Mathew. 1993. A Preliminary study on the Bird Community of Silent Valley Area. In Bird conservation ? Strategies for the Nineties and Beyond. Published by Ornithological Society of India, Bangalore. Pp.15-17.
	8. Madhav Gadgil, M. D. Subhash Chandran, P.Pramod, Utkarsh Ghate, Prema Iyer, Y. Gokhale, D.W. Thomas and P. Menon,1996. People's Biodiversity Register: A record of India's Wealth. Amruth, vol.1(5): 1-16
	9. Madhav Gadgil, P.R.S.Rao, Utkarsh G and Pramod P. 2000 New meaning for old knowledge : People's Biodiversity Registers Programme.Ecological Applications 10(50) 1307-1317.
	10. Achar, K.P., Bhat, G.K., Bhat, D.D., Ganguly, A., Ghokale, Y., Nagendra, H., Pramod, P. and Utkarsh, G. Linking college education to environmental monitoring and Management: A case study from India. In W.L. Filho (Ed.) Communicating Sustainability. Peterlang Scientific Publishers, Berlin.
	11. Pramod Padmanabhan, Kunhikrishnan E and Jomy Augustine ( In press). A report on the food plants of Salim Ali's Fruit bat ( Latidens Salimali). In Journal of B. N. H.S.
	Short Communication and abstracts published in Journals.
	12. Palot, M.J., Pramod P. 2000. Checklist of birds of Calicut University Campus, Zoos' print Journal 15(2): 214-216.
	13. Rikikrishnan and Pramod P, 1999, Bats of Indian Institute of Science campus, Current Science, 76: 716.
	14. Tytus T.Jacob, P.Pramod, K Gangadharan and M.Mahesh 1994. First record of the Rosy Pelican (Pelicanus onocrotalus) in Kerala. Journal, B. N.H.S. Vol 91: 452.
	15. Pramod, P. 1998. Diversity and variability in species assemblages of three bird communities in Silent valley, Kerala, India. In: Adams, N.J. and Slotow, R.H.(eds) Proc. 22Int. Ornithol. Congr., Durban. Ostrich 69.
	16. P.Pramod.1996. Mixed feeding flocks of Silent Valley Forest: A study on tropical forest birds. In Abstracts of First Indian Ecology Congress, New Delhi, Dec.1998.
	Popular Articles:
	17. Madhav Gadgil, Utkarsh Ghate and P.Pramod. 1996. Genus Ficus ?Trees of Life. The Hindu Survey of the Environment'96. pp171?175.
	18. Madhav Gadgil, Acharya S., Burman R., Bhattacharjee P.C.,Botre S.,Chhatre, S, Ghadhi K., Ganguli A., Ghate U., Kar D., Misra M., Panigrahi R., Pramod P, Rao PRS., Srrivasthava DS. And Vardhan M. 1998. Conservation Where are the People ? The Hindu Survey of Environment '98. Pp 107-137.
	Project Reports:
	19. Pramod Padmanabhan 1999. What to conserve ?: An Objective and Participatory Method. Submitted to WWF - India Under the National programme on Biodiversity Conservation Prioritisation Project.
	20. Pramod Padmanabhan, E. Kunhikrishnan and Jomy Augustine, 1999, Rapid Biodiversity Assessment of Meghamalais. (Submitted to Kerala Forest Department.).
	21. Sasikumar C, Pramod Padmanabhan, Mohamed Jafer palot. 2000, Birds of Aralam Wildlife Santuary: A report. ( submitted to Kerala Forest Department).
	22. Pramod Padmanabhan, Mohamed jafer palot, Jomy augustine, Kunhi Krihnan E, subramanian K.A. and Jibi Kuriakose. 2000. An Ecological Reconnaissance of Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary. ( Submitted to Kerala Forest Department)