With ATREE completing 20 years of work in the areas of conservation science and sustainable development, a two-day international conference is being organised on 24 and 25 January, 2017 in Bengaluru.
Key note speakers:
Upmanu Lall, Columbia Water Center
Esther Mwangi, Center for International Forestry and Research (CIFOR)   
Gunter Pauli, Author of The Blue Economy
Georgina Mace, London University College

For more information and to register for free, visit www.atree.org/atree@20

PERSPECTIVES

STPs in Bengaluru: good intent but poor implementation  
By Sharachchandra Lele, Pradeep Kuttuva, and Nakul Mohan Heble

Over the last nine years, more than 2,000 apartment complexes have implemented the Zero Liquid Discharge order in some form. While the intent of the order cannot be faulted, there are major problems with its formulation and implementation ." Read more
Lele and Heble are Senior Fellow and Research Associate respectively at ATREE. Kuttuva is with the Vettiver Collective, Chennai  

TN govt's indiscriminate ban on fishing won't save the turtles
By Madhuri Ramesh and Muralidharan M

Due to this narrow focus on a single species...the Tamil Nadu turtle conservation campaign has missed the opportunity to tackle faulty fisheries policies and their impact on both the marine environment and the people dependent on them.Read more 
The authors are with ATREE and Dakshin Foundation respectively

Alien invasives and how to control them
By Ankila J Hiremath and Siddhartha Krishnan

We also need a coordinated national effort to inventory and document invasive species—not just a list of alien species, but also the pathways by which they were introduced, the ecological characteristics that make them invasive, and their ecological and economic impacts." Read more
Authors are Fellows at ATREE

IN THE NEWS

“Peenya effluent getting into veggies, says study” 
Economic Times, 13 December 2016

Karnataka state authorities vowed action against industrial polluters in Bengaluru's Peenya industrial area based on a four-year project conducted by ATREE which documents how heavy-metal pollutants enter the Vrishabhavathy stream and contaminate the food chain. Read more

“Yelahanka Power plant could kill Jakkur Lake” 
Deccan Herald, 25 December 2016

A power plant in Yelahanka, Bengaluru, threatens to consume all of the wastewater that would have otherwise made its way to the recovering Jakkur lake. ATREE experts, who have worked on rejuvenating the lake, caution that the plant  could "jeopardise the survival of the lake." Read more

“STP, Retrospective burden” 
Deccan Herald, 25 December 2016

The Karnataka govt has imposed hefty bans on apartment complexes with over 20 units that have not installed a sewage treatment plant yet. An ATREE study finds that apartment STPs are only viable with 150 units or above. This report talks to residents as well as experts on the issue. Read more 

“Team studying Cauvery basin hydrology to predict demand”, Bangalore Mirror 8 December 2016

ATREE, along with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Hyderabad), as well as the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the British Geological Survey, and University of Dundee from UK recently started a three-year project, which studies the hydrology of the Cauvery basin with an aim to predict water demand. Read more

“Once-endangered frog discovered at 15 locations, including Bannerghatta”
The Hindu, 22 December 2016

A citizen-led study, in collaboration with ATREE, Gubbi Labs, and the National University of Singapore, found that the once endangered sholigari, a small Microhylid frog, is also found outside the Western Ghats in healthy numbers. Read more
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),
Website: www.atree.org