I am a field based ecologist involved in community based management of natural resources and ecosystem services. I have led a number of projects in this area over nearly two decades and have a PhD in ecology. I make extensive use of hydro-meteorologic equipment and participatory frameworks for data collection. I am adept in the use of quantitative methods and analysis which includes a range of GIS and remote sensing software and programming in R.
Much of my work has focused on how communities have adapted to declining environmental services from stressed or degraded ecosystems. I believe that community based management of available resources is a key component of long term disaster risk reduction and vulnerability reduction. My recent work has focused on climate change adaptation and resilience to extreme events and disasters associated with climate change. I have worked with farmers and coastal communities in Southern India on water management, watershed restoration and coastal restoration, and with pastoralists and farmers in Kenya and Somaliland on using watershed approaches to build reslience against climate change.
More recently, I worked as a consultant for the UNDP in South Sudan and prepared proposal concepts (PIF) on climate resilent agriculture and on strengthening climate information and early warning systems. I drew extensively on my ongoing work on eco-hydrology and my earlier experiences with community based watershed development for these assignments.
I believe strongly in the application of quantitative tools and techniques in research, development and advocacy. I have taught and continue to teach a number of topics. Many of these are in collaboration with other scientists and institutes. I am presently an adjunct faculty at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) Bangalore and teach the course on GIS and remote sensing to their students pursuing their M.Sc. in Wildlife Biology. Many of the courses I teach are hosted on the FERAL course management site <http://www.feral.edu.in/>. I use a hands-on approach to teaching with emphasis on equipping students to accomplish analytic tasks before confronting them with theory.