Past Events

Welcome to a talk by Dr. S. R. Ganesh on the 11th of October at the Heritage Centre

S.R.GANESH has a Doctorate specialising in Wildlife Biology from the Univ. of Madras,
India. He is the Director of Research of the Kalinga Foundation Agumbe, working on
amphibians and reptiles of southern India. His chief interests lie in the field of systematic
herpetology. He documents lesser-explored biomes, refining species characterizations and
mapping current distribution patterns of southern India’s herpetofauna. This is achieved from
fieldwork done for collecting base-line data, examining already-existing voucher specimens
in museums for taxonomic researches and carrying out mapping studies and analyses in GIS-
based approaches. Hailing from Madras, he had also explored much of the Deccan plateau,
the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats apart from the Coromandel Coastal plains. A full-
time academician, he has nearly 135 publications (mainly scientific journal articles including
new species descriptions, books and book chapters) to his credit. He has (co)described some
25 new species of snakes, lizards and frogs. He co-mentors undergraduate and post-graduate
zoology students in various colleges in Tamil Nadu. He serves as editorial board member and
a reviewer on over 20 Indian and international scientific journals and has collaborated with
herpetological research institutes both in India and abroad. He is a member of IUCN
Amphibian and Reptile Specialist Group, Viper Specialist Group, Skink Specialist Group,
Species Survival Commission, AmphibiaWeb and EMBL Reptile Database. He is an assessor
for ZSL Reptilia group - Zoological Society London and CAMP workshop on Reptiles, India.
He has also contributed to wildlife policy making and has served instrumental in the
declaration of many new Protected Areas like Sanctuaries and Tiger Reserve. In his capacity
as a biodiversity board expert advisory member for herpetofauna in four south Indian states:
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka he closely networks with the Forest
Dept. and updates herpetological data of many Protected Areas.