Experience
Dr. Ajay Maletha, did his B.Sc (Hons.) and M.Sc degree in Forestry and Natural Resources from H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal and also, Ph.D in Forestry from Kumaun University, Nainital, in affiliation with G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment (NIHE), Uttarakhand. He has started his research career working with Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun as a project personal, later he joined NIHE (w.e.f. August, 2012 to August, 2019) and has worked as Research Fellow, Research Associate and Project Coordinator in several Research and Development projects. During this period, he covered worked on different themes of Biodiversity and conservation issues i.e., Environmental Impact Assessment of Hydropower projects, Timberline Ecology, Taxonomy of high-altitude plant species, Land use and land cover studies using RS and GIS, Carbon sequestration and climate change, conservation of RET species, Forest based livelihood options, Disaster Risk management & Socio-economic vulnerabilities etc.
He is keenly interested in long term studies, in-depth experimentation in determining patterns of responses to changing climate on alpine or timberline plant communities which imperative to the sustainable biodiversity conservations and management of the Indian Himalayan Regions. Additionally, he is interested to investigate the drivers of land use changes in high altitude timberline ecotone and explore the use of remote sensing technology for the assessment of rare, endangered and threatened (RET) species and develop the strategies for their In-situ conservation. Currently, he is actively engaged in teaching, research, scientific paper writing and field work of the Institute. He is also active member of Indian Science Congress.