Chandra Prakash Kala
Template:/Chandra Prakash Kala
Biography
He was born and brought up in Sumari - a small village of Uttarakhand state in India. He studied life sciences at the HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar before doing his PhD on the ecology and conservation of the Valley of Flowers National Park at the Forest Research Institute (Deemed University), Dehradun.
Dr. Chandra Prakash Kala's research interests include alpine ecology, conservation biology, indigenous knowledge system, ethnobotany and medicinal aromatic plants. He has published over 150 research papers/articles and 6 books, "The Valley of Flowers: Myth and Reality"[1], "Medicinal Plants of Indian Trans-Himalaya", "Medicinal Plants of Uttarakhand", and "Ecology and Conservation of Valley of Flowers National Park". 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 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005[2].
Dr. Kala has surveyed two major traditional systems of Asian therapies - the Ayurveda and the Tibetan Medical Systems. He has studied the various natural resource management practices evolved by various tribal communities in northwest, northeast and central India, especially of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh states. Dr. Kala also has surveyed the Alps including the only national park of Slovenia the Triglav National Park.
He is in 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'.
Award and Recognition
He was awarded Fellowships from the national and international institutions including the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nepal and the Ministry of Environment & 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.
Dr. Kala was awarded the prestigious ICFRE Award for Excellence in the Forest Conservation (Biodiversity and Ecology).
Works
Collections
- A delicious affairs
- The tip of the tail
- Paradise under fire
- Birds, blooms, and boons
- Exploring roof of the world
- Journey from the Himalaya to the Alps
- Man-eaters of Garhwal
- Spurge and Snake Bite
- A Week With the Mount Everest and Nanda Devi Summiteers
- Tapyo
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
External link
http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=chandra+prakash+kala&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5
http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=6602891940
References
1. http://www.indianbooks.co.in/bookmart/the-valley-of-flowers-myth-and-reality.html 2. Kala, C.P. 2005. The Valley of Flowers- A Newly Declared World Heritage Site. Current Science, 89 (6): 919-920. http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/sep252005/919.pdf
- ^ http://www.indianbooks.co.in/bookmart/the-valley-of-flowers-myth-and-reality.html
- ^ Kala, C.P. 2005. The Valley of Flowers- A Newly Declared World Heritage Site. Current Science, 89 (6): 919-920