Faculty Profile

Dr Pulak Das holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology and Master’s Degree in Ecology from Assam (Central) University, Silchar. His doctoral thesis in Ecology and Environmental Science, looked into the biomonitoring and modelling of Air quality and other environmental stresses around industrial area, and the effect of these stresses on community ecology dynamics of lichens (an epiphytic flora) using geospatial analysis, under renowned lichenologist Dr. D. K. Upreti (FNASc), former Acting Director, CSIR- NBRI, Lucknow.

Dr Das also holds UGC-NET (2005) in Environmental Sciences.

Presently Dr. Das is teaching Post graduate and Under graduate courses as follows:

Post Graduate

• Environmental impact assessment
• Remote sensing and GIS

Under Graduate

• Environment: Issues and Challenges

Dr. Das has taught in the department of Environmental Science, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) Amarkantak, during 2013-14;

Courses taught:

• Basics of Physical Sciences
• Basics of Earth Science
• Environmental legislation, international conservation and environment movement
• Environmental statistics and mathematics modelling
• Environmental health science and toxicology
• Instrumentation and analytical techniques in environment science

Dr. Das has taught in the department of Ecology and Environmental Science in Assam University, Silchar during 2006-08.

Courses taught:

• Foundation course in Environmental studies

Dr Das has an experience of over six years in Oil and Gas Exploration Industry as an Environment Consultant during 2006-2013. The core area of his work included environmental monitoring and management, EIA studies, Environmental Audit, Environmental laws and regulations, and Regulatory compliances.

Dr Das has visited Myanmar in 2012 upon invitation from Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE, Govt. of Myanmar) for EIA studies of an Oil and Gas Block in Myanmar.

He was also involved in the Environmental auditing of oil production fields in Arunachal Pradesh during 2009-2010 organised by Director of Mines Safety, GoI – Guwahati region, North East India.

Environmental monitoring and management. Ecosystem analysis, use of lichens as ecological indicators, GIS and Remote sensing, River morphometry and ecosystems, spatial planning, impact assessment (EIA), and strategic environmental assessment (SEA), Sustainability studies in Indo-burma biodiversity hot-spot

Invited and completed as reviewer in International Elsevier journal Ecological indicator

• Responses in ecosystem services to projected land cover changes on the Tibetan Plateau
• Contribution of karst ecological restoration engineering to vegetation greening in southwest China during recent decade
• Land Degradation in Bihar, India: An Assessment Using Rain-Use Efficiency and Residual Trend Analysis
• A decomposed data analysis approach to assessing city sustainable development performance: a network DEA model with a slack-based measure
• Contribution of karst ecological restoration engineering to vegetation greening in southwest China during recent decade
• Responses in ecosystem services to projected land cover changes on the Tibetan Plateau
• Recent and projected impacts of land use and land cover changes on carbon stocks and biodiversity in East Kalimantan, Indonesia
• Morphophysiological screening of potential organisms for biomonitoring nitrogen deposition
• About the relationship between biodiversity and stability of ecological units in lake ecosystems
• Narrowing the gap: phytoplankton functional diversity in two disturbed tropical estuaries
• Evaluation of lichen species resistance to atmospheric metal pollution by coupling diversity and bioaccumulation approaches: a new bioindication scale for French forested areas
• Evaluation of lichen species resistance to atmospheric metal pollution by coupling diversity and bioaccumulation approaches: a new bioindication scale for French forested areas

Invited and completed as reviewer in International Springer journal Human Ecology

• Water gods of sacred groves: spatially explicit conservation for watershed management
• Analysis of forest health and socioeconomic dimension in climate change scenario and its future impacts: Remote sensing and GIS approach
• Participatory mapping to protect communities from mining?: Results from an exploratory study for improved local resource control at Gandhamardhan Hill in eastern India
• Spatio-temporal migration of the Ganga River between Allahabad and Buxar using remote sensing data and GIS technique

Invited and completed as reviewer in International Springer journal Environmental monitoring and assessment

• Synthetically monitoring and evaluating the ecosystem service function of the Three-River Headwaters region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China

Invited and completed as reviewer in National Peer reviewed journal Tropical Plant Research

• Assessment of the lichen diversity from Koundinya wildlife sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India

• Shastri Faculty Training and Internationalization Grants, SICI, as visiting faculty to Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada (2018)
• UGC-NET (Environmental Sciences) (2005)
• Research grant from AUD, titled ‘Remote sensing-based study of Built-up area dynamics as measure of urban expansion, in Delhi and NCR’, (2017)

Some selected publications include

• Das, P., Joshi, S., Rout, J., Upreti, D. K. 2013. Lichen diversity for environmental stress study: Application of index of Atmospheric Purity (IAP) and mapping around a paper mill in Barak Valley, Assam, northeast India. Tropical Ecology 54 (3): 353-362.
• Das, P., Joshi, S., Rout, J., Upreti, D. K. 2013. Impact of anthropogenic factors on abundance variability among lichen species in southern Assam, north east India. Tropical Ecology 54 (1): 67-72.
• Rout, J., Das, P., Upreti, D.K. 2010. Epiphytic lichen diversity in a reserve forest in southern Assam northeast India, Tropical Ecology 51(2): 281-288
• Das, P., Joshi, S., Rout, J., Upreti, D. K. 2012. Exploration of Homegardens as Important Lichen Conservation Areas in Dargakona Village of Southern Assam, Northeast India, Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany 1(2): 122-132.
• Joshi, S., Upreti, D.K., Das, P. 2011. Lichen diversity assessment in Pindari Glacier Valley of Uttarakhand, Geophytology 41(1-2):25-41.
• Joshi, S., Upreti, D.K., Das, P. 2011. Lichen Biodiversity across Elevational Gradient in Pindari Glacier Valley of Uttarakhand, India, Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany 2(2): 87-95.
• Das, P., Joshi, S., Rout, J., Upreti, D. K. 2012. Impact of a Paper Mill on Surrounding Epiphytic Lichen Communities Using Multivariate Analysis, Indian Journal of Ecology 39(1): 38-43.
• Das, P. Joshi, S. 2013. A remote sensing study for land cover change in south Assam, India. Earth Science India 6 (3): 136-146.
• Das, P., Joshi, S. 2011. Land-use change detection (1988-1999) using NDVI in Barak valley, Assam, Assam University Journal of Science and Technology: Biological and Environmental Sciences 8(1): 84-89.
• Das, P., Joshi, S., Rout, J., Upreti, D. K. 2012. Shannon Diversity Index (H) as an Ecological Indicator of Environmental Pollution - A GIS Approach, Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany 2(1): 22-26.
• Joshi, S., Upreti, D.K., Das, P., Nayaka, S. 2012.lichenometry: a technique to date natural hazards, Earth Science India V(II): 1-16.
• Rout, J., Rongmei, R., Das, P. 2005. Epiphytic lichen flora of a pristine habitat (NIT campus) in southern Assam, India, Phytotaxonomy 5:117-119.
• Das, P. 2012. Study of Barak River Meander and Associated Hazard around Silchar Town, Assam, using Remote Sensing and GIS. Earth Science India 5(2): 51-59.
• Das, P. & Dey. N. B. 2011. Socio-economic vulnerability in a Flood affected village of Barak Valley, Assam, India. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Sciences 3(2): 110-123.
• Das, P. & Joshi, S. 2012. Erratic Rainfall Patterns and its Consequence in Barak Valley, Southern Assam, Northeast India. Envis Assam News Letter October-December: 2-7.
• Das, P. 2012. Meandering nature of Barak River in subtropical climate of Southern Assam, Northeast India-A Geospatial analysis. International Journal of Environmental Sciences 2 (4): 2129-2138.
• Das, P. 2012. Disaster management in India: Policy review and Institutional Structure. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Sciences 4(1): 37-52.
• Das, P. & Kushwaha. H. S. 2011. CBM: A clean energy option for India to address climate change issue. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Sciences SI (2): 11-20.
• Das, P. 2014. Environmental management in Oil and Gas upstream industry in India. Journal of Industrial Pollution Control 30 (1): 59-66.
• Das, P. 2014. Homegarden Lichens-A Prospective For Ethnolichenology in Barak Valley, Assam, Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany 4(2): 77-86.

Book Chapter

• Das, P., Rout, J., Joshi, S., Upreti, D. K. 2015. ”Community Metrices under Air pollution stress conditions” In Recent Advances in Lichenology, Vol- I, Publisher- Springer (Forthcoming), (eds.) D.K. Upreti, Pradeep K. Divakar, Vertika Shukla, Rajesh Bajpai ISBN 978-81322-2180-7
• Purkayashta, P., Das, P. 2016. Environmental factors influencing technology of the tribes in central India with special reference to Baigas of Madhya Pradesh (125-131), In Ethnoscience and Traditional Technology in India Vol-1 (eds.) Byomakesh Tripathy ,D.V. Prasad, ISBN: 978-9385161-27-8 (Set)
• Das, P. 2021.Five Book chapters for IGNOU MSc (Environmental science) Program; (Chapter title)
  • Radioactive pollution and its impact
  • Thermal pollution and its impact
  • Oil pollution and its impact
  • Noise pollution and its impact
  • Waste generation and its disposal

In MEV, Semester 2 IGNOU, New Delhi

Selected paper presentations in seminars/conferences

• National Seminar on ‘Land and Water Resources Management Systems in Central India’ Organised by Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU), Amarkantak (MP); Forest Rights Act (FRA-2006) and its implementation in MP – A review, 14-15th March 2014.
• National Seminar on ‘Aspects of Ethno-Science and Traditional technology among the tribes of Central India’, Organised by Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU), Amarkantak, (MP); Environmental Factors influencing Tribal Technologies with special reference to Baigas of MP, 24-25 March 2014.
• International Conference on ‘GLO-CAL crisis and environmental governance in north-eastern region of India, Assam University, Silchar’; Waste management in oil and gas exploration industry in north east India; 2013.
• International Conference on ‘Vedanta Philosophy’, organised by Assam University, Silchar; Environmental Consciousness, Sustainable Development, Advaita Vedanta Philosophy- Three pillars of Environmental conservation in India; 21-24 November 2013.
• National Seminar on ‘Emerging Areas of research & development in Chemical and Physical sciences in north east India’; Department of Chemistry and Physics, Srikishan Sarda College, Hailakandi, Assam & Assam Science Society, Hailakandi, Assam; Produced water in CBM drilling: An Environmental issue and its Management; 2012.
• Fourth International Conference on ‘Plants & Environmental Pollution’, International Society of Environmental Botanists and National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (India); IAP and Kriging – A future prospect for use of lichen biomonitoring in Land use planning in India; 2010 (Poster).
• National Seminar on ‘Biodiversity Conservation (Forest and Land Resources Management)’; Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar; Conserving biodiversity-A way of living in India; 2010.
• National Seminar on ‘Biodiversity conservation: The Post-Rio Scenario in India’; Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar; Epiphytic lichen flora in Ecoforest of Assam University Campus, Silchar, Cachar District, Southern Assam, NE India; 2006.
• Third International Conference on ‘Plants & Environmental Pollution’, International Society of Environmental Botanists and National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (India); Occurrence and distribution of lichens in and around a paper industry (Panchgram) in southern Assam, NE India.; 2005 (Poster).
• 51st Annual Technical Session, Assam Science Society, Guwahati, Assam; Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology, Guwahati, Assam; An exploration of epiphytic lichens in reserve forest in Barak Valley, Southern Assam, north east India. 2006.