Unusual careers: Tropical forests are her office *************************************************** Nandini Velho is a Junior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore. On most days the 25-year-old wildlife biologist wakes up to chirping birds and a slight drizzle of rain as she steps into her office -- the lush green forests in Arunachal Pradesh. Nandini, along with her guide and mentor Dr Mahesh Sankaran, has started to engage in a long-term monitoring project at the 865-square km Pakke Tiger Reserve, one of the most biodiverse and relatively intact tropical forests in the world. She tells you that they have managed to mark and map all trees above 25 cm of GBH (girth at breast height) in a one-hectare plot and now plan to set up weather stations. Nandini has also studied the effects of logging and how plant-animal interactions change across habitats. If someone didnt pay me to do this, I would pay someone to allow me to do this, she tells you, evidently excited about the findings she is to publish soon in a peer-reviewed journal. Nandini completed her schooling from Goa, her bachelors degree in Life Sciences from St Xaviers College in Mumbai and has gone on to earn a masters degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from NCBS, which runs the course in association with the Wildlife Conservation Society India Programme. She tells Rediffs Abhishek Mande what her job entails, how she went about becoming a wildlife biologist and what qualities you must have to become one. Image: Nandini Velho, a wildlife biologist, spends up to eight months in the tropical forests of Arunachal Pradesh
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 03:13:26 +0000
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