ENVIS Centre on Wildlife & Protected Areas

I have M.Sc. (1980), Ph.D. (1984) and D.Sc. (2007) degrees in botany from Kumaun University, Nainital and am a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India (Allahabad, 2004). I am a member of the IUCN/SSC Orchid and Medicinal Plant specialist groups and a life member of the Association for Plant Taxonomy. Prior to joining WII, I served in the Botanical Survey of India, Dehradun and in the departments of botany of Kumaun and Garhwal universities in various capacities.

In 1988, I was awarded an FAO fellowship to undergo six months’ on-the-job training in habitat evaluation procedures at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Later (in 1993), I also underwent training in alpine plant ecology at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, U.S.A. My current research interests include long term ecological monitoring of high altitude ecosystems; ecology and management of alpine rangeland/alpine meadows; and orchid systematics and ecology. Besides performing my routine duties at WII, I work as the Secretary, Uttarakhand Chapter of the National Academy of Sciences, India and Associate Editor, Tropical Ecology in honorary capacities.

I have been studying insular, coastal and marine biodiversity for their conservation, particularly birds and mammals of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. Being a member of the IUCN-WCPA member I have been involved in Building Capacity to promote Integrated Management of Marine Protected Areas  in India

Shri Rajesh Thapa presently holding the position of System Manager was the first computer personnel to be inducted in Wildlife Institute of India in July, 1985.

He did his Masters in Mathematics with specialization in Computer Programming from Garhwal University. He also holds PG Diploma in Computer Applications. He was awarded the US Fish & Wildlife Service fellowship for undergoing specialized training on GIS and System Administration in Colorado, USA during September-October, 1991. He was also awarded training fellowship to USA under the World Bank “Environmental Resource Management Network (ERMN)” grant for capacity building in computer applications in May-June 1996.

From a setup of two Apple IIe computers in 1985, the computer facility of the Institute has grown to 300 plus nodes on LAN and internet under his supervision and management.

His specialization is in GIS, remote sensing, networking, internet and system administration of heterogeneous systems viz. MS Windows and Linux. He first developed the home page of WII during his training at National Biological Service, Denver, Colorado in 1996. As a GIS resource person, he attended an international conference “Assessing the Status of Tigers” held in Bangkok, Thailand in October, 1994 and an International Symposium on “Benefiting from Earth Observation: Bridging the Data Gap for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region” held in Kathmandu, Nepal in October 2010.

He has been conducting instructional training about information technology to the institute’s faculty, staff, officer-trainees, researchers and students. He has conducted and participated in various workshops/seminars/conferences on subjects related to information technology. He is a member of various committee’s of the WII and provides his technical inputs on IT, GIS and RS to these committees. He has also been imparting technical expertise to the sister organisations on development of IT infrastructure.

He is a member of Library & Documentation Committee, e-Governance Committee, ENVIS Advisory Committee, Vibhagiya Rajbhasha Karyanvayan Samiti, Hindi magazine Editorial Board, Tender Opening Committee and various screening committees of the Institute. He has also contributed in various recruitment processes from time to time. Shri Shrivastava likes to play Chess and represented the Institute in All India Forest Sports Meets many times. He also contributed satires and poems for different magazines and newspapers.

Sh. Dinesh Singh Pundir

Computer Programmer