Arundhati Das

Arundhati is a landscape ecologist with a deep fascination for montane forests — particularly cloud forests. She seeks to understand how climate, land-use change and invasive plants shape the distribution and structure of woody plant communities.

Her work has taken her across some of the world’s most important biodiversity landscapes — through conservation planning at ATREE, TERI and The Nature Conservancy (USA), to leading the Academic Programme at WCS – India, to postdoctoral research at NCBS-TIFR and IISc. Along the way, she shaped and contributed to widely used spatial databases and has been fortunate to have had remarkable mentors and collaborators, who have shaped her thinking as much as the habitats themselves.

Hope is what keeps her going, as does the question: how can we conserve the forests that sustain life, in a rapidly changing world?

She holds a PhD in Conservation Science from Manipal University, and a master’s of Environmental Management from Duke University.

Publications

Journal articles

Kacker, S., Krishna, S., Das, A., & Shahabuddin, G. (2024). Patterns of tree regeneration and their implications for succession in Himalayan pine-oak forests, India. Forest Ecology & Management, 562, 121941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2024.121941
Das, A., Ratnam, J., & Jathanna, D. (2023). Patterns and consequences of invasion of tropical montane forests by Cestrum aurantiacum Lindl. in the Western Ghats. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 11, 11980. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1119800
Jobin, V., Das, A., Harikrishnan, C. P., Chanda, R., Lawrence, S., & Robin, V. V. (2023). Patterns of understory invasion in invasive timber stands of a tropical sky island. Ecology and Evolution, 13(4), e9995. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9995
Das, A., & Ratnam, J. (2022). The thermal niche and phylogenetic assembly of evergreen tree metacommunities in a mid-to-upper tropical montane zone. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289(1977), 20220038. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0038
Das, A., Thaker, M., Coetsee, C., Slotow, R., & Vanak, A. (2022). The importance of history in understanding large tree mortality in African savannas. Ecography, 2022(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05751
Das, A., Menon, T., Ratnam, J., Thadani, R., Rajashekar, G., Fararoda, R., & Shahabuddin, G. (2021). Expansion of pine into mid-elevation Himalayan oak forests: Patterns and drivers in a multiple-use landscape. Forest Ecology and Management, 497, 119491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119491
Arasumani, M., Khan, D., Das, A., Lockwood, I., Stewart, R., Ravi, K. A., Muthukumar, M., Bunyan, M., & Robin, V. V. (2018). Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats sky island. PLoS ONE, 13(1), e0190003. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190003
Das, A., John, R., & Anand, M. (2017). Does structural connectivity influence tree species distributions and abundance in a naturally discontinuous tropical forest formation? Journal of Vegetation Science, 28, 7 – 18. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12474
Das, A., Nagendra, H., Anand, M., & Bunyan, M. (2015). Topographic and bioclimatic determinants of the occurrence of forest and grassland in tropical montane forest-grassland mosaics of the Western Ghats, India. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0130566. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130566
Anand, M., Leithead, M., Wagner, C., Silva, L. C. R., Ashiq, M. W., Drobyshev, I., Bergeron, Y., Das, A., & Bulger, C. (2013). The scientific value of the largest remaining old-growth red pine forests in North America. Biodiversity and Conservation, 22, 1847 – 1861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-013‑0528‑4
Mukherjee, S., Krishnan, A., Tamma, K., Home, C., Navya, R., Joseph, S., Das, A., & Ramakrishnan, U. (2010). Ecology driving genetic variation: A comparative phylogeography of jungle cat (Felis chaus) and leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in India. PLoS ONE, 5(10), e13724. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013724
Anand, M. O., Krishnaswamy, J., & Das, A. (2008). Proximity to forests drives bird conservation value of shade-coffee plantations: Implications for certification. Ecological Applications, 18(7), 1754 – 1763. https://doi.org/10.1890/07 – 1545.1
Das, A., Krishnaswamy, J., Bawa, K. S., Kiran, M. C., Srinivas, V., Samba Kumar, N., & Karanth, K. U. (2006). Prioritisation of conservation areas in the Western Ghats, India. Biological Conservation, 133, 16 – 31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2006.05.026

Books

Bhatt, J. R., Das, A., & Shanker, K. (Eds.). (2018). Biodiversity and climate change: An Indian perspective. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
Das, A., Niphadkar, M., Nair, T., Gavai, P., Kelkar, N., Shah, M. A., Hiremath, A., Ramaswami, G., Sundaram, B., Bunyan, M., Krishnaswamy, J., Ramakrishnan, U., Sankaran, M., Krupa, H., Rashid, I., Raghurama, M., Bawa, K., & Thorat, O. (2026). Understanding and managing invasive alien species in India. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911827

Chapters in edited books

Das, A., & Sukumar, R. (2018). Climate change and forest dynamics: The importance of long-term studies. In J. R. Bhatt, A. Das, & K. Shanker (Eds.), Biodiversity and climate change: An Indian perspective. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
Bhatt, J. R., Das, A., Hari Haran, P., & Shanker, K. (2018). The implications of climate change for Indian biodiversity: An overview. In J. R. Bhatt, A. Das, & K. Shanker (Eds.), Biodiversity and climate change: An Indian perspective. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
Varghese, P., Singh, T. P., & Das, A. (2003). Potential impact of climate change on forests: A case study in Uttaranchal. In Environmental threats, vulnerability, and adaptation: Case studies from India. The Energy and Resources Institute.

Technical reports

Raghurama, M., Dutta, S., Nair, T., Sankaran, M., Raman, T. R. S., Mudappa, D., Osuri, A. M., Krishnaswamy, J., Ramakrishnan, U., Das, A., & Bawa, K. (2023). Restoring India’s terrestrial ecosystems: Needs, challenges, and policy recommendations. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10040431
Krishnaswamy, J., Kiran, M. C., Davande, S., Das, A., & Irfan Ullah, M. (2005). Eco-climatic vegetation classification for the Western Ghats using multi-season NDVI. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.
Smith, R. K., Freeman, P. L., Higgins, J. V., Wheaton, K. S., Fitzhugh, T. W., Ernstrom, K. J., & Das, A. A. (2002). Priority areas for freshwater conservation: A biodiversity assessment of the southeastern United States. The Nature Conservancy.
CEPF. (2007). Ecosystem profile: Western Ghats and Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot, Western Ghats region. Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund.