How can one extend the reach of conservation into landscapes outside protected areas? Conservationists around the world are now working to extend conservation to such landscapes, especially lands under productive agriculture and plantations, by linking production with the market for products certified as coming from farms that follow sustainable and ecologically-friendly practices.

Scattered fragments of tropical rainforest amidst vast monoculture plantations, a high density of people, and a host of endangered, endemic wildlife—this is the Valparai plateau of the Anamalai hills in Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot. Keeping in mind the fragile ecosystem, conflict between people and wildlife, and the need for broad-based conservation awareness, we spearheaded a conservation education programme, beginning in 2007.

The Nicobar Islands are biologically unique as they encompass a variety of ecosystems. Indigenous islanders extract natural resources using traditional systems of ownership and management. The overall aim of this project is to understand the influence of post-tsunami change on cooperative behaviour and sharing of natural resources amongst these indigenous communities, from the perspective of conservation and management of natural resources.

Seagrasses are marine angiosperms which serve as good bioindicatots of environmental change. In this study, we propose to formulate an integrated monitoring protocol, both to monitor environmental health, as well as manage seagrass ecosystems in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay.

 Namdapha National Park located in the Indo-Myamar biodiversity hotspot encompasses a wide altitudinal range with habitats ranging from lowland evergreen forests to alpine meadows. It harbours unparalled floral and faunal diversity. We acquired satellite imageries of Namdapha and its surrounding landscape to assess changes in forest cover between 1999 and 2005 to establish baselines and understand human impacts on the park.

The eastern Himalayan Arunachal Pradesh is India's biological frontier, where much remains to be explored and described.During our biological expeditions in the high altitudes of western Arunachal Pradesh, we stumbled upon an amazing diversity of life, including the Arunachal macaque, a monkey whose existence was thus far unknown to science.

Can a complex and biologically diverse forest, once destroyed by human action, ever be brought back to its original state? When forests are in a relatively undisturbed state, it is best to leave them as they are rather than disturb them in the belief that they can be brought back or restored. Nevertheless, there are forests already degraded or destroyed where there is a strong case for restoration efforts, like here in the Anamalai hills.