Dr. Manoj Kumar specializes in forestry, environment, climate change, and related multidisciplinary subjects. He obtained his PhD from Forest Research Institute Deemed to be University, Dehradun, India for thesis “Analysing impacts of climate change on forests using dynamic vegetation model”. He holds a master’s degree in “Environment Management” and a bachelor’s degree in “Environment and Water Management.” He has nearly 20 years of research and academic experience in using information technology, remote sensing, and GIS tools for various applications in the field of forestry, environment, and climate change. He focuses on testing and developing dynamic vegetation models for studying the impacts of climate change. He has been working on developing a forest simulation model - "ForestInfo" to analyze the functional relationships between plants and their environment, with a particular focus on assessing the impacts of climate change at local and regional scales. Currently, he applies his expertise at CoE-SLM by providing technical guidance on utilizing geoinformatics tools for sustainable land management.Dr. Hitendra Padalia serving as Scientist /Engineer SG and Head of the Forestry and Ecology Department at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), ISRO, Dehradun. He obtained a Master and PhD degree in Forestry from Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun. He joined ISRO in 2007. He has undergone the Space Studies Program (SSP) of International Space University (ISU). He has contributed to the key national level projects of Department of Space (DOS) & User Ministries like Biodiversity Characterisation at Landscape Level, National Carbon Project, National Natural Resource Census and Decadal LULC Dynamics of Indian River Basins. He has recently led multi-instutional project on Himalayan Alpine Biodiversity assessment funded by the National Mission for Himalayan Studies, MoEFCC. Since 2011, he has been contributing to the education, training and capacity building activities of IIRS and UN affiliated CSSTEAP. He has organised several training courses for IFS Officers, State Forest Rangers and scientists from ICFRE’s institutions in the country. He is a team member of ISRO’s NISAR Science Team and has also contributed to AVIRIS-NG science campaign and HySIS Hyperspectral Data task team. He is a member of the high-level committee constituted by MoEFCC for notification of eco-sensitive areas (ESA) in the Western ghats and member of the Eco-sensitive Zone committee. He has been awarded with P.R. Pisharoty Memorial Award by ISRS, Forestry Research Excellence Award by ICFRE and Platinum Jubilee Lecture Award by Indian Science Congress Association. He has guided four PhDs and several postgraduate dissertations. He has published over 72 peer reviewed publications and also served as Secretary of Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS).
