Indian ecologist and professor
Chandra Prakash Kala in the middle Himalayan region of India
Chandra Prakash Kala is an Indian ecologist and professor. His research interests include
alpine ecology,
conservation biology ,
indigenous knowledge systems,
ethnobotany and
medicinal
aromatic plants. He is an assistant professor in the faculty area of Ecosystem and Environment Management at the
Indian Institute of Forest Management .
[1]
Early life and education
Kala was born and grew up in Sumari, a small village of
Uttarakhand state in
India . He studied life sciences at the
Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University , Srinagar before completing a PhD on the ecology and conservation of the
Valley of Flowers National Park at the
Forest Research Institute (a
deemed university ), Dehradun.
Career
He has published over 185 research papers and articles and nine books including: The Valley of Flowers: Myth and Reality ,
[2] Medicinal Plants of Indian Trans-Himalaya ,
[3] Medicinal Plants of Uttarakhand ,
[4] and Ecology and Conservation of Valley of Flowers National Park .
[5] He writes popular articles regularly in English and Hindi. His decade long studies on the
Valley of Flowers National Park laid the foundation stone to declare the Valley of Flowers a
World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005.
[6]
Kala has surveyed two major traditional systems of Asian therapies -
Ayurveda
[7]
[8] and the
traditional Tibetan medicine .
[9]
[10] He has studied various natural resource management practices evolved by various tribal communities in northwest,
[11]
[12] northeast
[13] and central India,
[14]
[15]
[16] especially in
Arunachal Pradesh ,
Himachal Pradesh ,
Jammu and Kashmir ,
Uttarakhand ,
Chhattisgarh and
Madhya Pradesh . Besides the Valley of Flowers, he surveyed many other high altitude protected areas, including
Kedarnath Wild Life Sanctuary ,
Great Himalayan National Park ,
Hemis National Park ,
Karakorum Wildlife Sanctuary ,
Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary ,
Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary,
Pin Valley National Park and
Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary .
[17]
[18] Kala also has surveyed the
Alps including the only national park of Slovenia,
Triglav National Park .
[19]
He has served internationally recognized institutions well known for framing and implementing policies, including the National Medicinal Plants Board, the apex body of the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare , of India.
[20]
Kala is on the editorial and advisory board of over a dozen of national and international scientific journals, including Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine , American Journal of Plant Sciences , International Journal of Ecology , Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences , International Journal of Forestry Research , Journal of Biodiversity and African Journal of Plant Sciences .
[21]
[22]
Award and recognition
Kala is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the first science academy of India established in 1930.
[23] He has been awarded fellowships from the national and international institutions including the
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development , Nepal the
Ministry of Environment and Forests , the
Wildlife Institute of India , and the
G. B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development - for carrying out research on the ecology and
biodiversity conservation in the various
national parks , wildlife sanctuaries and
biosphere reserves of the Indian
Himalayas .
[22]
[24]
He has been a
visiting scholar at
Pennsylvania State University , in the United States and the
University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
Kala was awarded the prestigious
ICFRE Award for Excellence in the Forest Conservation (Biodiversity and Ecology).
[25]
Works
Collection
Short stories
"A Delicious Affairs"
"Nagrasani"
"The Last Wish"
"The Tip of the Tail"
"Man-eaters of Garhwal"
"Spurge and Snake Bite"
"Tapyo"
"My Favorite Medicine"
"The Prisoners of School"
"Riding the Best"
"Gaura’s Home"
"Aunty"
"A Killer in the Clouds"
"A Bull in the Leopard’s Monarchy"
"The Heavenly Leaf"
"The Forgotten Healers"
"His Confession"
"Seers of Pandukeshwar"
"Battle Between the Best"
"The Fragrance of Parijaat"
"The Childhood Friend"
Travelogues
"On His Wishes"
"The Bear’s Trail"
"A Non-vegetarian in the Holy Hills"
"A Job Hunter"
"My First Job"
"My Maiden Visit to Penn State"
"Botanist of Surguja"
"Ziro"
"A City of Biodiversity"
"A Week with Everest and Nanda Devi Summiteers"
"The Silence of Candolim"
"The Land of Many Shades"
"Om Mani Padme Hum"
"The Roof of the World"
"The Floating Heaven"
"A Vagrant and the ‘Queen of Mountains’"
"Hidden Gem of Europe"
"The Majesty of Mahasu"
Essays
"Paradise Under Fire"
"Taste the Himalayas"
"Revitalizing Sacred Grove"
"The Tremor of Tragedy"
"Mountains of Sanjeevani"
"Grasslands in Peril"
"Call from the Hills"
"Sacred, a Way of Life"
Books
The Valley of Flowers: Myth and Reality
Medicinal Plants of Uttarakhand
Medicinal Plants of Indian Trans-Himalaya
Medicinal Plants and Sustainable Development
Biodiversity, Communities and Climate Change
References
^
"Kala, Chandra Prakash | भारतीय वन प्रबंध संस्थान, भोपाल" . Archived from
the original on 3 December 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2016 .
^
The Valley Of Flowers: Myth and Reality; Chandra Prakash Kala; International Book Distributors, New Delhi . indianbooks.co.in. 1 January 2004.
ISBN
9788170893110 . Archived from
the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014 .
^ Kala, C. P. (2003).
Medicinal Plants of Indian Trans-Himalaya: focus on Tibetan use of medicinal resources . Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh.
ISBN
9788121101806 . Retrieved 5 October 2014 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2010). Medicinal Plants of Uttarakhand: Diversity, Livelihood and Conservation: Chandra Prakash Kala: 9788176222099: Amazon.com: Books . Biotech Books.
ISBN
978-8176222099 .
^ Kala, C.P.; Rawat, G. S.; Uniyal, V. K.; Wildlife Institute of India (Dehra Dūn, India) (1998).
Ecology and conservation of the Valley of Flowers National Park, Garhwal Himalaya . Wildlife Institute of India.
ISBN
9788185496061 . Retrieved 5 October 2014 .
^ Kala, C. P. (2005).
"The Valley of Flowers- A Newly Declared World Heritage Site" (PDF) . Current Science . 89 (6): 919–920. Archived from
the original (PDF) on 17 October 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2014 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2005).
"Current Status of Medicinal Plants used by Traditional Vaidyas in Uttaranchal State of India" . Ethnobotany Research & Applications . 3 : 267–278.
doi :
10.17348/era.3.0.267-278 .
hdl :
10125/179 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2006).
"Preserving Ayurvedic Herbal Formulations by Vaidyas: The Traditional Healers of the Uttaranchal Himalaya Region in India" . HerbalGram . 70 : 42–50.
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2005). "Health traditions of Buddhist community and role of amchis in trans-Himalayan region of India". Current Science . 89 (8): 1331–1338.
JSTOR
24110838 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2006).
"Medicinal plants of the high altitude cold desert in India: Diversity, distribution and traditional uses" . International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystems Services & Management . 2 : 43–56.
doi :
10.1080/17451590609618098 .
S2CID
85420560 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2000). "Status and conservation of rare and endangered medicinal plants in the Indian trans-Himalaya". Biological Conservation . 93 (3): 371–379.
doi :
10.1016/S0006-3207(99)00128-7 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash; Mathur, Vinod B. (2002). "Patterns of plant species distribution in the Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, India". Journal of Vegetation Science . 13 (6): 751.
doi :
10.1111/j.1654-1103.2002.tb02104.x .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2005).
"Ethnomedicinal botany of the Apatani in the Eastern Himalayan region of India" . Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine . 1 : 11.
doi :
10.1186/1746-4269-1-11 .
PMC
1315349 .
PMID
16288657 .
^ Kala, C. P (2013).
"Traditional ecological knowledge on characteristics, conservation and management of soil in tribal communities of Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve, India" . Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition .
doi :
10.4067/S0718-95162013005000018 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2015). "Forest structure and anthropogenic pressures in the Pachmarhi biosphere reserve of India". Journal of Forestry Research . 26 (4): 867–874.
doi :
10.1007/s11676-015-0083-3 .
S2CID
16408415 .
^ Kala, Chandra (2009).
"Aboriginal uses and management of ethnobotanical species in deciduous forests of Chhattisgarh state in India" . Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine . 5 : 20.
doi :
10.1186/1746-4269-5-20 .
PMC
2729299 .
PMID
19653889 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2005). "Indigenous Uses, Population Density, and Conservation of Threatened Medicinal Plants in Protected Areas of the Indian Himalayas". Conservation Biology . 19 (2): 368–378.
doi :
10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00602.x .
S2CID
85324142 .
^ Kala, Chandra; Kothari, Kishor (1 January 2013).
"Livestock predation by common leopard in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, India: human-wildlife conflicts and conservation issues" . Human–Wildlife Interactions . 7 (2).
doi :
10.26077/c366-ej10 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash; Ratajc, Petra (2012).
"High altitude biodiversity of the Alps and the Himalayas: Ethnobotany, plant distribution and conservation perspective" . Biodiversity and Conservation . 21 (4): 1115.
doi :
10.1007/s10531-012-0246-x .
S2CID
13911329 .
^ Kala, Chandra Prakash (2009). "Medicinal plants conservation and enterprise development". Medicinal Plants - International Journal of Phytomedicines and Related Industries . 1 (2): 79.
doi :
10.5958/j.0975-4261.1.2.011 .
^
"Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine | Editorial Board" . ethnobiomed.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014 .
^
a
b
"Chandra Prakash Kala" . hindawi.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014 .
^
"The National Academy of Sciences, India - Home" . Archived from
the original on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014 .
^ Chandra Prakash Kala; Chandra Shekhar Silori (1 January 2013).
Biodiversity, Communities and Climate Change . TERI Press. pp. 329–.
ISBN
978-81-7993-442-5 .
^ Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education.
http://icfre.org/UserFiles/File/annual_report-2005-06/chapter-2.pdf
External links