PEW Award to Professor Madhav Gadgil for the year 1993
Prof. Madhav Gadgil is at the Centre for Ecological Sciences,
Indian Institute of Science and Chairman, Biodiversity Unit, Jawaharlal
Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India. His
research focuses on the ecology of Western Ghats, a mountain range in
South India, now recognized as one of the world's biodiversity hot spots.
He is particularly interested in how the manifold human demands affect the
productivity as well as diversity of the biological resources in this
tract spanning some 160,000 sq.km. This involves field research on plant
and bird communities, on the organization of rural societies in relation
to the use of biological resources, and on the resource demands of the
larger society. As a member of the Karnataka State Planning Board, he is
currently formulating a programme of organizing local communities to
prepare strategies for sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity
each in their own localities. He represents the Government of India on the
Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to the
International Convention on Biological Diversity.
His Pew Award Project
involves the creation of a network of undergraduate colleges in the
Western Ghats to work on and promote a people-oriented strategy of
conservation of biodiversity on the Western Ghats. The project involves 25
groups of biology teachers and students focusing on a study area of around
25 sq.km. each near their institution. They have by now completed mapping
the landscapes of their study localities and sampling for tree and bird
species in representative examples of each type of landscape element. Some
work has also been initiated on othe plant and animal groups including
butterflies, freshwater molluscs, fishes, mosses and liverworts. These
groups are now working on documenting the knowledge and conservation
practices of local communities with respect to various elements of
biodiversity.