PERSPECTIVES

Sharachchandra Lele, Senior Fellow and Programme leader of the Climate Change Mitigation and Development programme at ATREE, Veena Srinivasan, Fellow and programme leader of the Water, Land and Society programme and Priyanka Jamwal, a fellow who works on water quality studies, write about what's ailing Bangalore's lakes in the Deccan Herald "The problem of our lakes – not just in Bengaluru, but all urban lakes in India – is linked closely to the problem of urban sewage management. Focusing on the lake itself – cleaning, de-silting, aerating, or putting in enzymes – is not a long-term solution, because the problem originates elsewhere. Banning fishing is to make a scapegoat out of folks that have a stake in a healthy lake. And diverting drains that reach the lake – a policy often adopted by the Bengaluru Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB) – is only transferring the problem elsewhere. Read More>>

ATREE in the News

	An article in The Wire, drawing the academic expertise of Dr Priyanka Jhamwal, an ATREE fellow working on water quality studies, talks about the fallacies of surface water regulation in India. Read More>>
	A Times of India coverage of ATREE PhD student Hita Unnikrishnan's research paper, chronicles the transformation of the Sampangi Lake, once a thriving urban space, into a tank that lies in the fringes of the Kanteerava Stadium. Read More>>
	The Hindu writes an article about ATREE's partnership with Indrani Chelladhurai Charities to constitute Bell Pins and ATREE Conservation Leadership Award. The awards ceremony was held on May 1 at the Bell School auditorium in Palayamkottai. Read More>>
	In a Times of India article, Aravind Madyastha, a fellow at ATREE who works on a broad range of topics including biosystematics, ecology, conservation, genes, species, communities and ecosystems, talks to the Times of India about an endangered fresh water clam species,Pseudomulleria dalyi, a Gondawanaland relic,highlighting its significance and the challenges it currently faces. Read More>>
	Rohit George of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, who is also the Coordinator of the North East India Biodiversity Portal, stressed the importance of the India Biodiversity Portal for conservation initiatives in the context of a two-day state-level workshop on North East India's biodiversity, in Manipur. Read More>>
	Abi Tamim Vanak talks to Pune Mirror about a project that ATREE is managing on behalf of the Maharashtra Forest Department. The Project tags less charismatic species with small GPS trackers. Having already tagged 8 species of Foxes, the researchers are now in the lookout for Jackals and Jungle Cats to tag and study. Read More>>

Accolades and Recognitions

	Nachiket Kelkar, a PhD student here at ATREE, was invited by the International Whaling Commission to contribute as an external scientific contributor to their Annual Scientific Committee Meeting, in Slovenia, in the second week of June, 2016. He will also be reviewing a session on threatened small cetaceans there. Congrats Nachiket!
	Siddhartha Krishnan, fellow, Centre for Environment and Development, ATREE, was recently elected as a board member of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO). A sociologist by training, he describes his mission as 'historicizing environmental sociology and sociologizing environmental history.' Congrats Siddharth!