India Chapter

Contact Information

Chapter Lead: Indranil Mondal

Email: [email protected]

Chapter Officials:

• Dibyendu Mandal
• Prashant Hedao
• Lata Iyer

Description

The Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS) India chapter is the newest addition to the SCGIS international chapters with an aim to connect conservation GIS professionals and students across India for capacity building and promotion of the use of GIS in conservation. Our primary aim will be to create an online and local community network of GIS professionals/ students for further functioning of SCGIS. We plan on the following actions to strengthen the use of advanced GIS in the Indian conservation arena:

1. Conduct capacity building workshops to empower less-privileged users of GIS
2. Hold a yearly country level conservation GIS conference and hold small regional meetings/gatherings across India
3. Interact and network with other SCGIS Chapters in the neighboring countries.
4. Nominate Indian scholars to the SCGIS international scholarship program, which provides training, software and hardware to the recipients.

Brief Discussion about India

India is an emerging economy in Asia which sustains 18% of world’s population, four global biodiversity hotspots, and rich and diverse flora and fauna in approximately 2% of world’s landmass. India has a population of 1.3 billion people and at the same time a forest cover of 23.34%, which among other animals harbours 60% of the world’s tiger populations. Forests in India range from semi-arid scrub in the North-Western India, Dry and Moist deciduous forests and savanna grasslands of Central India, Tropical Evergreen Forests of the Western Ghats, Temperate forests and Alpine scrubs of the Himalaya to Mangrove forests of the coastal areas. They are home to innumerable charismatic, endangered and endemic species. India harbours 60% of the world’s tiger populations and is the only country that still has Asiatic Lions. The interplay of biotic and abiotic pressures on these ecosystems presents a unique challenge for India to conserve its biodiversity. GIS is a powerful state-of-the-art analytical and planning tool for conservationists to present their research finding in a more meaningful way to aid policy makers in understanding conservation issues. SCGIS India will serve as a platform for conservation GIS practitioners in India to network, learn from each other, and unite their strength for the sake of conservation in India.