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Chief PatronProf. (Dr.) G. Gopa KumarHon. Vice Chancellor

PatronDr. A. ThulaseedharanDean, School of Biological ScienceCentral University of kerala

Magazine Chief EditorDr. Palatty Allesh SinuAssistant ProfessorDepartment of Animal ScienceCentral University of KeralaEmail: [email protected]

Magazine Editorial board membersDr. L. Divya(Assistant Professor,Department of Animal Science)

Dr. H.P. Gurushankara(Assistant Professor,Department of Animal Science)

Dr. Amruth G. Kumar(Dean Student Welfare, AssociateProfessor, Department of Education)

Dr. Senthilkumar(Deputy Librarian,Central University of Kerala)

Editorial AssistantShibil. V.K.(PhD Scholar, Dept. of Animal Science)

Puthumazha is a magazine published bythe nature club of the Central Universityof Kerala that is functioning from theDepartment of Animal Science. It providesa platform for the students and staffs ofthe University including the alumni topublish their nature-related articles,reports, essays, poems, photographs etc.Contributions are welcomed throughoutthe year and should be sent to the [email protected]

Disclosure: Any and all opinionsexpressed in this magazine are solelythose of the author (s) and do not reflectthe opinion of CU-Kerala

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Editor’s musingsby P. A. Sinu

Releasing the First Issue of Puthumazha

Research HighlightsA buzzing interaction between flowering plants and animalsPalatty Allesh Sinu

Pasine Pollination: a biological barterK.R. Shivanna

Friends without benefits… find ways to survive togetherRajesh Tandon

Language of insectsDattatraya G. Naik

Nature’s fury or man’s voracity?P.A. Sinu

Editor’s choiceSmart hill stations: how it should be smart?

From the diary of CU-Kerala facultyThe Journey towards understanding the intricacies in a cancer cellV.B. Sameer Kumar

History noteCommemorating Alfred Russel Wallace (1903-1913), a greatbiogeographerAkhila B. Nair

HappeningsEcology of Plant-Animal InteractionPalatty Allesh Sinu

HappeningsMan-Animal Conflict or Coexistence: what do we want?Wild boars in forest village ecosystemsP.A. Sinu and M. Nagarajan

Cover Photo: Sinu

Printed atKasaragod Printing & Multi Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd.,Kasaragod

Design by: Viju Kanhangad

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Volume -2 Meenam & Thulam-2015

Puthumazha (The First Rain)..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Editor’s musings

A scientist is also a “Judge”, who always will have twocompeting hypotheses in front of him, a null hypothesis andan alternate hypothesis; based on the circumstantial evidencesand proofs s/he accepts one and rejects the other!

Once again, hearty greetings from Central University of Kerala!It gives me great pleasure to present you the second issue ofthe Puthumazha, the nature magazine of Central University ofKerala. Let me first apologize for the unprecedented delay inbringing out the second issue of this magazine. After having athorough thought, we have now decided to bring out only twoissues of this magazine per year.

This issue covers “pollination” as the thematic topic inresearch highlights. Pollination that we start studying fromour upper primary classes (during 1980s; now-a-days it is beingtaught from the very lower primary level) is an important modeof sexual reproduction in flowering plants (angiosperms). Noneof us would have been spared by our Biology teacher fromdrawing a neat picture of the longitudinal section of a Hibiscusflower and showing the parts of it! As some radio jockey wasairing through a private FM channel, some of you also mightbe asking yourself, what we get in our practical life fromdrawing and studying the parts of Hibiscus flower!! Wheneverasked to answer the question “what is pollination?”, we mighthave defined it as a process of transferring pollen grains fromanther of male flower to the stigma of a female flower, oftenwith an illustration showing the wind-borne pollen grainsbetween male and female flowers!!! Anyhow, like some of you,I too had temporarily stopped studying more about the plantsand the details of pollination biology at my pre-degree level,because I had opted animal science at my graduate and post-graduate level, where I studied more about animals and thebiology of animal reproduction. But, the illustration ofpollination was kept unchanged in my mind.

Today, after a decade old research on plant-animalinteractions, and precisely on pollination ecology, I can saythat the reproductive biology in animals is relatively a very

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simple process if you put plant reproduction on the other sideof the fence. I do not know how many of you will agree with myargument! In wild animals, the only primary requisite to initiatethe process of reproduction is meeting of two receptive partnersand having a mutual agreement between the male and femalepartners perhaps with a cost, in the form of a prey, a readymadedwell to the female partner, an agreement of faithful parentalcare, or a courtship dance, where the female if satisfied andhappy, the male donates sperms in many thousands that selfpropels and competes each other to meet the only one or fewova. Then just imagine what the static plants will do to meettheir partners! Anyway, you will see a striking similaritybetween the animal and plant systems, i.e. males of both plantsand animals produce thousands of haploid male gametes(pollen and sperms) most of which miss the “target” as onlyone or few will win the “race” and meet the sole ovum or fewovules. The striking difference between these two systems isthat most flowering plants need an agent or vector to transportor “courier” their pollen grains to the stigma, even if both themale and female parts are available in the same flower (bisexual)!Naturally, the common mistake is that wind is the major carrier(a courier agent) of pollen grains in most plants. But, that isagainst the fact that only few plants are adapted for windpollination. Anyhow, the behavior of the wind (speed, directionetc.) becomes so crucial for the pollination to takes place inwind-pollinated plants. In such circumstances, it is too chancyor accidental that pollen reaches the stigma of its own femalepartner through wind. So, the production of thousands ofpollen is justified in plants. The story is not complete…Youmust refer the articles in this issue for a complete picture of thestory.

Soon after I completed my PhD, quite accidentally I met agreat personality in plant reproductive biology, Dr. K.R.Shivanna, a retired professor from Botany Department of DelhiUniversity and Fellow of all the Indian Science academies,who joined ATREE-Bangalore as a senior honorary fellow post-retirement. He was working on the reproductive biology in


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GUEST COLUMN

Puthumazha (The First Rain)2

cardamoms of Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas forATREE. He invited me to help him in the entomological aspectsof the work. He gave life to the frozen image of wind bornepollen between male and female flowers in my mind. I was trulyastonished on his statement that only about 10% of the entireflowering plant species are pollinated by wind and over 90%of them need animals, particularly the insects, very preciselythe bees and flies. Animal vectors are required to transfer thepollen grains from male flowers to the female flowers and evento move the pollen from the anthers to the stigma somemillimeters in some bisexual flowers! Then you can imaginethe relevance of pollinators in bringing about pollination inmonoecious (i.e. unisexual, single plant produces male andfemale flowers) and dioecious plants (male and female flowersare produced on male and female plants)! Plants evolved adiversity of methods to limit the inbreeding issues, which ispredominantly occurred due to selfing. In some plants maleparts (pollen) mature first and lose its viability, then the femaleparts mature. In some other plants it happens vice versa.

Who is really mating with the flowers? Here the poeticimagination of butterfly as the male partner and a flower as thefemale partner comes really true! Through my close observationof a bee moving over a flower, I can say that a bee is an intimate“partner” of flowers! In scientific words, we call this sort ofinteraction between a rewarding flower and a pollinating insectas mutualism. Prof. Shivanna has an article on costs andbenefits of this ‘expensive’ interaction in this issue. I did nothave to think too much why an entomologist like me was invitedto help in a plant reproductive biology project! Soon, I pickedup the basics of the interaction between the insects and theflowers. I found answers for many questions related to thelearning behavior of insects through observing the insects onflowers. Was that the flower-visiting insects shaped the flowersor that the flowers shaped the flower-visiting insects’morphology and the behavior? Take the case of a tubular flowerof Ixora; you will see only butterflies and some sunbirds inthem. It is because the long and thin proboscis of the butterfliesor the beak of the sunbirds only can reach the nectar column inthe bottom part of the tube of the flowers. However, manyother insects evolved with the nectar ‘robbing’ behavior andphysical characters to rupture the corolla tube to rob the nectareasily. In fact, both the flowers and insects (bees, flies, beetles,moths and butterflies) were mutually shaping the size, form,scent, color and behavior of flowers and flower visitors. Seethe article of Dr. Rajesh Tandon on nectar robbers and theirrole in bringing out pollination in this issue. How the flowervisitors identify their favorite flowers? You will see an answerto this question from a chemical ecologist, Dr. Dattatraya Naik’sarticle on language of insects.

This issue onwards Puthumazha will introduce you a newsection “from the diary of CUK faculty”, which introduces oneof our faculty member, her/his area of research and their

achievements, which I hope you will certainly find interestingand useful! This issue features Dr. V.B. Sameer Kumar, abudding but, very productive faculty member of the Departmentof Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He talks about howhe was attracted to Biology first, then to Chemistry and Biologyequally during his undergraduate period, and finally settled inBiochemistry, an inter-disciplinary subject for his post-graduation and onward research. He tells that his parentswanted him to wear the robes of a barrister (the reason you willsee in this feature)! But, I believe that a scientist is also alawyer, and probably a Judge too, who always will have twohypotheses in front of him, the null hypothesis and alternatehypothesis, and through his research, he will accept one andreject the other based on the proofs and evidences that she orhe has!

As an editor’s choice of article, I have picked up a paperthat I reviewed for the journal “Environment, Developmentand Sustainability”, titled “Forest sustainability anddevelopment in hills of Uttarakhand, India: Can they movetogether?”. I think it is a timely article as our country is headingtowards the transformation of hill stations into smart hill cities.I have analyzed this article from the backdrop of recentcatastrophic events in our hill stations at Srinagar andBadrinath.

The department of Animal Science is very active inconducting extension activities for the benefit of the localcommunity. It has organized an exciting 8-day comprehensiveworkshop on “Ecology of plant-animal interaction” in CU-Kerala. This perhaps would be the first full-fledged residentialworkshop in the University. Later, it organized a symposium tobrainstorm on the recent burning issue of Kerala, the man-animal conflict. Detailed reports of these programs are alsoprovided in this issue.

I also take this opportunity to welcome you to ourUniversity, our labs and the fields and to have a brief ‘tour’with our faculty and the researchers to know more about thehappenings in their labs, which will certainly fascinate andnurture your interest in science. Happy reading!

Palatty Allesh SinuEditor


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Releasing the first issue of Puthumazha

The first issue was released on 21 May 2014 by noted EnvironmentalistProf. E. Kunhikrishnan by handing over a copy to Prof. Shashidhar Viraktamath,Agricutlural Entomologist at University of Agricultural Science, Dharward.

Release of1st issue ofputhumazha byProf. E. Kunhikrishnan.

Handing over acopy ofputhumazha toMs. Omita Paul,the Secretary tothe President,India


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4Puthumazha (The First Rain)

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Do you know how many of ourplanet’s flowering plants are pollinator-dependent for fruit set? 3,08,006 out of3,52,000 plants, which is 87.5%! Realisticdata shows that an average of 94% ofthe tropical plants requires a pollinator,and an average of 78% of the plants intemperate zones need a pollinator!

Do you know what proportionof our crop plants is pollinator-reliant?The global data says that 75% of thecrops show increased fruit or seed setwith animal pollination.

Do you know the value ofpollination service to humankind? It is €153 billion annually (about Rs. 1,10,000billion)

Let us first find out how muchwe are now depending on the pollinatorsfor our meal? Our demand for ‘qualityjunk’ food, which is made up of severalcash crops today, such as coffee, cacao,

Research Highlights

cashew, cardamom, almond, walnut,apricot, vanilla etc. has been increased.Ask yourself, how many of you areskipping a proper grain-meal in noon andeating any one of the following for yourlunch: chocolates, burgers, coffee, icecreams, snickers, munch, etc. (I am sure,some of you might be even munchingany one of this ‘quality’ food when youare reading this). How many times, wetake coffee (including all the brands,cappuchino, espresso etc.) today? Howmany of us are today eating dry fruitsand candies made of gooseberry, melonsetc. We are proud to tweet that “I justhad an oatmeal for my breakfast”, whichcertainly does not need a pollinator perse, but, to make our oatmeal “tasty”, weneed cashew, almond, pista, fruits etc.Then you will find the answer, how muchwe are depending on the pollinators tohave these trendy meals. Not only thesetrendy meals, but also many of ourfavorite vegetables and pulses need apollinator to produce fruits. But, thelatest global researches find that thereare not enough wild pollinators aroundin places where these crops arecultivating. So, we started managingsome of these bees in boxes and aremoving them around for the service ofpollination! Until recently, we were notdepending on these boxed bees forpollination, but this part of the foodindustry is also now burgeoning.

When I had an interaction withthe polyhouse farmers of Kerala, whogrow several exotic melons, pumpkins,tomatoes, squashes etc. in a closedpoly-house, I understand that they arenow bringing exotic bumble bees forpollinating these crops!! In India thecold-loving temperate bumble beespecies are seen wild only in theHiamalayas and the hills of Meghalaya!Do you think they can make a life in our

tropical, warm and humid place for someseconds?

Global pollinator crisisIt is a phenomenon of

widespread decline in pollinatordiversity in terms of its number andspecies in view of the expandingpollinator dependent crops! What arethe key reasons for this phenomenon?1) Native wild pollinators are declining;2) managed honey bee colonies cannotcompensate for this loss!

I will have to tell you that thefarmers’ “pet”honey bees alsosometimes “cheat”the flowers! Globaldata shows that thewild bees are betterpollinators than themanaged Europeanhoney bees (Apismellifera) for ourcrops! How is itpossible? It is allbecause of our owni r r e s p o n s i b l eactions without

A buzzing interaction between Flowering Plants and Animals

Palatty Allesh Sinu

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knowing the facts. Just before theEuropean managed honey bee wasbrought into the farms in bee hive boxes,we had so many close relatives of thisspecies to pollinate our crops, such asApis cerana, Apis dorsata and Apisflorea, and distant relatives, such asstingless bees, carpenter bees, bumblebees and solitary bees that live wild! But,the very aggressive colony makingEuropean honey bees suddenlydominated over the wild bees in thefarms that limited the growth of the wildbees. Later when the European honeybees were affected by the viruspathogens, there were no wild bees

Species list of known pollinators for global crops that are grown for direct human consumption(from Klein et al. (2008))

around us to substitutethe European bees!Farmers are nowdeploying man powerto do the handpollination in manycrops. But, I think thetraditional farmers ofIndia are not facing thiscrisis now like thebiodiversity poorcountries in Europe andNorth America. Let usbe proud of our wealthof biological resources!

Too close to the bees...

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Research Highlights

Pollination: a biological barter!

In flowering plants, pollinationis the transfer of pollen grains from theanthers to the stigma. Pollination is anecessary requirement for fruit and seedset. As the plants are stationary, theycannot bring about pollination on theirown; they have to make use of otheragents for this purpose. Over 90% of theplants use animals to achieve pollination(biotic pollination). Thus plants andpollinators form the partners to performone of the most vital eco-services,pollination. Plant-pollinator interactionis largely mutualistic in which both thepartners are benefited. Plants producerewards in the flower, largely in the formof pollen and nectar, and advertise thepresence of rewards through diversityof colours, shapes and sizes of flowers/inflorescences and their fragrance.

Animals visit the flowers to harvest therewards, and during this process bringabout pollination. It is a sort of biologicalbarter! The main evolutionary strategyof plants is to get pollination services ofanimals with minimum investment andthat of animals is to harvest maximumrewards with minimum expenditure ofenergy and time. These conflictingstrategies of plants and animals act asstrong driving forces for the evolutionand diversification of flowers as well aspollinators.

Flowers of some species aresimple and are referred to as ‘open’; anyfloral visitor can harvest the rewards.Such open flowers are pollinated by alarger number of animal species.However, the flowers of most of thespecies are specialized to different

degrees and make the rewards accessibleto only selected groups of visitors.Depending on the extent ofspecialization, the number of visitorspecies that can harvest the rewards getsreduced. In some of the highlyspecialized species, the plants andpollinators have co-evolved to such anextent that each plant species can bepollinated by just one species of animal.Some plant species have evolvedstrategies to cheat pollinators; theyadvertise the presence of rewardswithout offering any rewards. Similarly,some insects rob the plants of theirrewards by harvesting the rewardswithout performing pollination service(pollen robbers and/or nectar robbers).Pollination has been a fascinatingsubject for studies since the middle ofthe 18th century. Darwin brought inevolutionary perspectives to studies onpollination biology. Over the years thisfield has grown enormously and hasbecome a synthetic discipline to explainthe structure and function of flowers inthe light of ecology and evolution byincorporating the techniques of newdisciplines such as biochemistry,genetics, population biology andmolecular biology.

As pollination is the basis ofsexual reproduction, sustainability of ourbiodiversity depends on effectivepollination. A number of investigationshave clearly shown that human activitiesin recent years are seriously affecting theeffectiveness of this vital eco-service.Pollination limitation/failure has beenshown to act as a driver for pushing thespecies to endangered category andeventual extinction. It is predicted that ifthis trend of human activity continues

K.R. Shivanna


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Adhathoda vasaca, a plant having three sexual phases in flower: a male phase, abisexual phase and a female phase. This matters a lot in its pollination

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unchecked, it will lead to a ‘sixth massextinction of species’. If this happens, itis going to be more severe than the earlierfive mass extinctions recorded ingeological history.

Apart from its role insustenance of wild species in theirnatural habitat, pollination is also of vitalimportance in the productivity of our cropspecies. As pollination is the basis offruit and seed set and in a majority of ourcrop plants, fruits and seeds are theeconomic products, pollination limitationreduces the yield and affects theproductivity of crop plants. In theWestern countries farmers have beenusing managed pollinators, particularlyhoneybees and bumblebees to overcomepollinator limitation, and have startedtaking appropriate measures to safeguard

pollinators in natural habitats. Thistechnology is yet to be followed indeveloping countries, particularly inIndia. Lack of baseline data on details ofpollination and pollinators of our cropplants is one of the major limitations toextend such an eco-friendly technologyin our country. Recently someenterprising farmers in Kerala areinterested in growing vegetable cropsunder green House conditions. But oneof their major problems is to achieveoptimal pollination under greenhouseconditions. Realizing the importance ofpollination of our crop species, UnitedNations agencies, have initiated ‘Global

Pollination Project’ in many biodiversity-rich developing countries with the mainobjective of conserving pollinators andtheir sustainable use for cropproductivity.

There has been a lot of concernin recent years on rapid erosion of ourbiodiversity due to human activities.India is rich in biodiversity and sharesfour of the megadiversity hot spots ofthe world. As our habitats are degradingvery rapidly, pollination efficacy in ourecosystem is bound to be seriouslyaffected. But we do not have any dataabout the diversity and density ofpollinators. Our knowledge onpollination and pollinators of our wild aswell as crop species is very limited. Tosafeguard our biodiversity and cropproductivity, therefore, it is necessary togenerate extensive data on pollinationand pollinators. Presently very fewlaboratories are working on pollinationbiology. It is important for ouryoungsters to take up studies onpollination and pollinators. Hopefullythis special issue would highlight someof the fascinating areas in this field andcreate interest in some of our youngstudents and researchers to take up thisfield for their studies.

(Dr. K.R. Shivanna FASc, FNA,FNAAS, FNASc is presently an INSAHonorary Senior Scientist at ATREE,Bangalore; [email protected])

Prof. Shivanna in his field observations in large Cardamom plantations

Prof. Shivanna in front of the field station, Mangan, Sikkim


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Research Highlights

Friends without benefits…

find ways to survive together!!

Biotic pollination has been oneof the most significant evolutionaryforces in propelling the fountain ofvariation in flowering plants, from thetime when they appeared first almost 140million years ago. Besides the skilledhoneybees, a variety of other animalsincluding mammals, birds, rodents,reptiles and mollusks also becameadaptive to consistently rely on resource

Rajesh Tandon

from their ‘ideal type’ of flowers, thatusually bloomed in their region ofoccurrence and at the time of theirfeasting bout. In its outcome, pollinationbenefitted both the consociates byassuring mating between immobileplants and by providing the insects withinstant energy. In this entire scenario,floral rewards, predominantly the sugarynectar played a vital role.Interestingly,

the time of nectar production and itsconcealment by flowers, and also itsquantity and quality, have played adecisive role in fine-tuning andcoevolving the relationship betweenplants with their ‘reliable’ pollinators.

Amidst this mutually beneficialand participatory relationship, there areanimals, the nectar robbers, with a skillto consume nectar without extending the



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pollination service.Intense robbing maywane the quantum of rewards in robbedplants to such an extent that their usualpollinators either stop visiting them ormove away to new locality with a betterenriched source! The consequences mayturn disastrous for those plant speciesthat essentially relies on vectors to formseeds.

As Darwin propounded”…nectar collection in a felonious manner”,has indeed been “detrimental”to thefitness of many plants that “suffer” fromrobbing. It had been difficult to argueand establish that nectar robbing wouldever be involved in enhancing the fitnessof plants. The answer to this paradoxrequires understanding of thecomponents of interaction that makemutualism work in nature. Here, I cite anexample of recently investigated plant-pollinator-robber interaction in a treespecies popularly known as the DesertTeak (Tecomella undulata, Bignoni-aceae; Singh et al., 2014), that growsnaturally in Western Rajasthan. Thetrees bloom at the time when the othersdon’t in the community and importantly,the trees need to be cross-fertilized forsiring the seeds. This job is effectivelyaccomplished by the two species ofbulbuls –Red-vented bulbul(Pycnonotus cafer) and White-earedbulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis), as theirpollen laden nape/crown dimensionallymatches with that of the floral opening.The flowers produce nectar that alsoattracts the purple sunbirds (Nectariniaasiatica), the robbers. The robbers withtheir sharp and curved bill very neatly,like a skilled pocket thief, pierce throughthe corolla and swiftly slurp the nectar.Each male sunbird, which makes nest inthe bushes of ‘Kair’(Capparisdecidua)or the trees of ‘Khejri’ (Prosopisci-neraria) in the population, territoriallyguardsthe floral resource of 5-6 treesfrom the malesof the otherterritories.Each day the robbers comebefore the arrival of the pollinators androb the flowers of their fresh nectar crop.

Robbing does not dissuade thepollinators to visit the robbed flowers.Although the teak flowers have thecapacity to replenish nectar in the robbedones, the process is slow and this forcesthe already accustomed pollinators tovisit additional trees in a bout to fulfilltheir requirements. The net impact is theenhanced pollen flow in the populationthat in turn favours the outbreeding treeswith significantly enhanced fruit-set. Hadthe trees in population been self-compatible, the net outcome would havebeen negative, due to increased selfing.In nature the selfed offspring are usuallycompetitively inferior to the outbredones. This plant-pollinator-robberinteraction in the Desert Teak trees maycontinue to exist, as long as the foragingbehavior of robbers and pollinators doesnot conflict through aggression usuallyrequired in maintaining the territory, andthe trees continue to receive benefitthrough increased pollen flow. To testthis surmise one needs a populationwhere two plant species flower at thesame time and also compete for the samepollinator.

Our understanding of themutualistic interaction is oftenchallenged by the intricacies of thecomponents involved. This is largelybecause the multivariate experimentsrequire extra efforts and are very difficultto execute. For example, what if, therobber in one plant species changes its

behavior to pollinator and vice versa,within a season or in different seasons.One may encounter the secondaryrobbers as well. Accordingly, the patternand dynamics of mutualistic interactionwould vary.Thus, a similar scientificinquiry may provide differentinformation under different set ofcircumstances. With mounting exampleson nectar robbery/thieving or larcenyworldwide, the role of casual floralvisitors is becoming difficult to ignore.They may appear unimportant but couldbe directly or indirectly influencing thesurvival of the plant species!(Dr. Rajesh Tandon is a Professor ofDepartment of Botany in University ofDelhi; [email protected])

Suggested readings

• Maloof JE, Inouye DW. 2000. Arenectar robbers cheaters ormutualists? Ecology 81: 2651–2661.

• Irwin RE, Brody AK, Waser NM(2001) The impact of floral larcenyonindividuals, populations, andcommunities. Oecologia 129: 161–168.

• Singh VK, Barman C, Tandon R.2014. Nectar robbing positivelyInfluences the reproductive successof Tecomella undulata(Bignoniaceae). PLoS ONE 9(7):e102607. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102607



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NOTES AND NEWS

Language is an important gift ofnature to the mankind. We cancommunicate effectively by using thelanguage and make our needs, plans andeven difficulties known to others. Whenwe think about insects the question ‘Doinsect have a language?’ may arise. Theanswer to this question can be obtainedfrom some simple observations in ourdaily life. If we look at the ants going tosome spilt food item in a dirty kitchen,our attention is attracted by an importantfeature. There is a good discipline in theants. They are seen to follow regular pathin a zigzag manner. The question thatneeds to be addressed now is ‘who tellsthe ants to go in line?’ We can make yetanother observation. If a drop of sugarsyrup gets dropped on the palm whileeating sweet containing sugar syrup,sometimes we observe that a houseflylands exactly on the drop. Movementsof its appendages makes the person feela little uncomfortable a small jerk is givento the palm. The housefly flies off due tothe jerk but lands exactly at the samepoint. In some cases even otherhouseflies also start gathering there. Thequestion that needs to be answered is‘who tells the houseflies to come exactlyat the drop of sugar syrup. These twoobservations certainly give us evidencethat there must be a good mechanism ofcommunication in insects.

Although the literature shows thatscientists have noticed the capacities ofinsects to communicate in the 18th

century, the mystery of the languagestarted unfolding in the 20th century. Itwas postulated that insects might becommunicating with each-other by usingcertain chemicals. The observations

Research Highlights

Language of insects

mentioned earlier can be explained by thishypothesis. However certain interestingexperiments were done to prove thehypothesis. In one such experiment thefemales of ‘Promethia moth’ were kept ina glass bottle and its opening wascovered with a muslin cloth (Figure 1). Itwas found that the males present in thesurrounding area gathered on the muslincloth. In continuation of the experimentthe opening of the jar containing femaleswas closed with plaster of Paris and theresponse of the males was observed. Itwas seen that males did not take anynotice of the presence of females. In thefinal stage of the experiment a long tubewas fixed in the opening of the glassbottle containing the female moths andthe response of the males was observed.

chemicals’ is accepted. These chemicalsare secreted in very small quantities,have a peculiar odour and are volatile. Inscientific literature such chemicals arecalled as ‘Pheromones’. Following thishypothesis methods were developed toisolate pheromones from insects. It isvery interesting to note that by nowpheromones of thousands of insectshave been isolated and their chemicalstructures have been elucidated.

Once the structure of any naturallyoccurring compound is established it isusually taken as a target for chemicalsynthesis. Literature is full withinformation on the chemical structuresof pheromones and methods used tosynthesize them. Chemical synthesismakes a larger quantity of chemical forexperimentation. Synthetic pheromonescan, therefore, be used for variousapplications in fields, especially from theinsect control point of view. One of themain applications of syntheticpheromones is the ‘population survey’of insects. This is very important fordeciding the time of sprayinginsecticides on the fields. Usually trapsloaded with attractant pheromones arekept in the fields in which the insecticidesare to be sprayed. Number of insectsgetting trapped in 24 hours is counted.When this number exceeds certainthreshold value, then only decision tospray insecticides is taken. This wasfound to reduce the frequency of spraywhich not only reduced the expenditurebut was also useful in reducing theresidues of toxic chemicals on crops inthe fields. In another application the filterpapers coated with glue were doped withinsect attractant pheromones and many

Figure 1: Experiments on promethiamoth

It was seen that the males gatheredaround the upper end of the tube fromwhere the chemicals indicating thepresence of the females were gettingreleased. Examination of the scientificliterature is full with such interestingexperiments and now the theory that‘insects communicate by using

Dattatraya G. Naik



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such papers were mounted on poles atregular intervals in fields. It was foundthat insects got attracted towards theepapers under the influence ofpheromone and got stuck on the glue.Insects on such filter papers can beeasily killed. Thus pheromones openeda new avenue of ‘non-toxic insectcontrolling agents’ in the area ofpesticides. Pheromones of honeybeeshave been studied extensively in India.From these studies attractant ‘lures’ forhoneybees have been developed andeven patented. These lures, whensprayed on flowers can attracthoneybees towards those flowers(Figure 2).

This can result in improved efficiencyof pollination. Considering this type ofapplications, many products forattracting honeybees were developed forcommercial scale. They are making a goodbusiness all over the world.

As most of the insects are locatedon the terrestrial plants, thecorresponding pheromones were thepheromones used in air. However at theend of the last century some interestingobservations were made in the aquaticenvironment. The larvae of Chironomusramosus, which have existence in aquaticenvironment, were studied. The larvaewere found to construct tubes of sandaround themselves in water. For feedingpurposes the larvae were found to comeout of these tubes. It was shown thateach larva returns to its own tube afterfeeding. This observation was called as‘tube recognition phenomenon’. Whenthe reasons for this phenomenon weresearched, aquatic pheromones werediscovered. The pheromones released bythe cuticular glands were shown to playa crucial role in this remarkable activityof the larvae.

Study of pheromones began slightlylate in the chemical sciences but hasattained a great importance by now sinceit can lead to non-toxic insect controllingagents which is the need of the day.

Honeybee visiting flower under the influence of ‘lures’

(Dr. Dattatraya Naik is a SeniorScientist in Department of Chemistryand the Coordinator of Bioprospecting

group in Agharkar Research Institute;Pune 411004; [email protected])

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These days most of our publicmoney is going for relief programs andreestablishment of places and propertieswhich are affected by the naturalcalamities that the present generationwant to attribute to the “climate change”.Everybody agrees that climate changeis in place and not a fiction. Still, ourmandate is to “build” more and moreconcrete buildings in our hill stationswithout considering their carryingcapacity. Till today, we have not learnedhow to reduce the impact of climatechange in hill stations! Scientists andmeteorologists attributed the recentfloods in J&K to climate change. It is aphenomenon that has no internationalboundaries. So, whatever happens in ourneighboring countries is also a lessonthat has several take home messages.

Nature’s fury or man’s voracity?

The flood that happened in J&K in 2014was almost near the first anniversary ofa similar event happened in Badrinathand other parts of Uttarakhand in 2013.The Western Himalayas and hills ofPakistan are regularly affected by thisnatural phenomenon; but, it is not limitedonly there. The hills of Darjeeling andSikkim, our east coast particularly ofSundarbans part of West Bengal, Odisha,

Seemandra, and Tamil Nadu are allaffected by all sorts of tropical stormscoming from the Bay of Bengal. The hugeloss of the peoples’ lives and propertyto all these natural calamities are notalone due to the increasing magnitudeor frequency of the natural calamities.But, the pace the urbanization took place,poor urban planning, faulty drainagesystem and the loss of wetlands andmarsh lands have all aggravated thetragedies.

Landslides and floods tookaway most of the developmentalactivities in the hills and plains. Still weare building more concrete structures forhousing and other purposes in the hills.Do we have enough natural resourcesand raw materials for reconstructionevery other year? So along with oursmart-city programs in the hill stations,we need a national action plan to monitorand check the unprecedenteddevelopmental activities that happen inthe hills today. Although it has nothingto do with the “climate change”, the 2011earthquake of 6.7 magnitude in Mangan,Sikkim caused maximum damage toalmost all the concrete buildings in thehill station. Tourism is the major industryof most hill stations. But, there shouldbe a quality check for all the luxuries thatare bringing to hill stations for the sakeof tourists. Otherwise, we shouldallocate more of our GDP forreconstruction rather than really buildingour nation!

Allocate more for disaster management and rehabilitation programs else, forget about smart “hill cities”

Palatty Allesh Sinu

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India is targeting a major leapin the overall development of thecountry; so the hills are also not spared.The present Central government iscommitted to smarten all the potential hillstations and to bring sustainabledevelopment there. I have made myapprehensions on this proposal of smarthill stations in this issue of Puthumazha.Eventually, I feel that our hill stationscertainly need a facelift, but, not bymeans of constructing many “concreteforests” at the cost of the green cover,but through adopting mechanismsspecific to the requirements of each hillstations to improve sanitation, disaster

Editor’s choice

management, infrastructure suitable tothe environment etc. A global estimationprojects that about 2 billion hectare offorests are destroyed per year. In thatjuncture, an article that I reviewed for aSpringer Journal, EnvironmentDevelopment and Sustainability titled“Forest sustainability and developmentin hills of India – can they movetogether?” has several take homemessages to the peoples of differentsectors of the society particularly thepolicy makers, hill and forest dwellersand the town planners.

The article first givesa detailed account on the difficulties that

the hill station dwellers face today fromthe stringent colonial rules and acts withreference to the forest, wildlife andenvironment protection. These top-down approaches often question theforest dwellers’ right over land andforest. From the point of “development”the mountain dwellers ask some verycrucial questions: why they should bestrived to cater the basic needs, such aswater, electricity, and pure air of thepeoples living in towns and cities of theplains? Why to combat climate changethey have to struggle much? Why theforest and environment protection in theplains is not getting same thrust as thatof the hills? I find these questions havelots of similarities with the voices beingmade by the government heads of thedeveloping economies including India onthe proposals of the industrial anddeveloped countries that the formergroup of countries should reduce carboncredit and increase the green cover forthe overall survival of the globe and forour common future! But, most of themcry this for a better fund allocation andeconomic package in the UN talks fortheir actions to combat the climatechange. At the local level, the solutionthat the hill station dwellers put forwardto their governments remains to be thesame, a better economic package!Recently in November, 2015, Rs. 80,000crores extended by the Prime Minister ofIndia to the J&K government was foundinsufficient by the State government.

According to thepresent hill dwellers, the majordevelopmental obstacles that they face

Smart hill stations: how it should be smart?

Looking towards a better futue: A hill station resident in forest village, Darjeeling

Sustainable development is the development which meets the needs of thepresent without sacrificing the ability of the future to meet its needs(Brundtland Commission Report, 1987: Our Common Future)

Palatty Allesh Sinu

Most of our hill stations today crossed their carrying capacity

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are limited livelihood options,inadequate living, poor education andmedical infrastructures, and problemsdue to proximity to the forests, such aswildlife attack, crop raiding due to pestsand wild animals, wildfire, excessiverainfall and landslide. When theenvironmental laws stop extensiveagriculture and industrial developmentin the hills, poor infrastructure,particularly the roads limit the growth ofthe tourism industry. When the ForestConservation Act 1980 oppressed theforest dwellers as the encroachers, theNational Forest Policy 1988, encouragedthe participation of the local peoples inthe management of forests, but only togrow the forests and not to have an equalshare of the benefits!

The hill and forestdwellers were living there for many

centuries before present in harmony withthe nature and greater level of toleranceand are contributing to the sustainabledevelopment of the region and thecountry. Globalization failed to guaranteea support value to many of thetraditionally growing crops in the hills.The hill dwellers, since constitutedlargely by an agrarian community, gaveup the sustainable path of agriculture fortheir own survival. They now becomethe least tolerant category of peoples,and now demand all modes ofconveyance and luxury at their door step!A pro-development country like India isnow facilitating the industrial growth inthe hill States. The effect of globalwarming and climate change is enormousin the hill States. The poor managementof hills increased the frequency of landslides, which leads to crop loss,

infrastructure and property damage andhuman casualties. Noteworthy to say, thehill States of India are the abodes of theplantation and mining industries forcenturies that supported the lives ofmillions of hill and forest dwellers. Thearticle rightly points out that “hill statesmust adopt a development path thatwould not disturb the ecologicalbalance of the region; because, it iscrucial for the survival of the peopleliving in that region and also for thepeople of India”. The article suggeststhe following strategies to achieve thesustainable development in the hills:

1. Bottom-up approach in thegovernance

2. Increased participation of women inthe conservation of forests

3. Integration of the livelihood andforest conservation

4. Hill specific infrastructuredevelopment to transformsubsistence economies of hillyterrains into market determinedeconomies

5. Provision of adequate livinginfrastructure

6. Prevention of forest fires

7. Monetary incentive to localpopulation for enhancing forestcover.

May the hill (forest) dwellers feel proud of their participation in extending the better quality ecosystem services to the largepopulation of the plain-dwelling community through maintaining good forest cover in the hills!

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Cancer biology is among the hottestand the highly funded field of researchand I feel glad to be part of it. When Istarted as a young biologist during mybachelor’s degree I had an interest inchemistry and fascination for biology.However like any confused sciencestudent, I had many questions in mindlike what would be the job prospects ofsecuring a degree in Botany, Zoology orChemistry, primarily because at that timeI was not well informed or was rather notbothered about a research career. Myparents were very supportive towardsmy passion for Biology and theygracefully encouraged me to join for B.Sc.Botany even though they wanted me todo law (probably because I had the habitof arguing too much) for which, I gotadmission too. Thus my classes forBotany as main and Zoology andChemistry as subsidiary subjects startedat the University College, Trivandrum.After few days of attending strikes, thefirst shock came in the form of a notice inthe notice board “Onam Pareeksha”(Mid-term exam). The syllabus includedthree units of that paper and to be frankwhat I knew in that was not more thanthree words (Myxophycea,Rhodophycea and Cyanophycea). Ireferred to it as a shock, because afterattending Kendriya Vidyalaya, the wayclasses handled at college was very newto me and unexpected. At around thesame time, new courses started at thenewly started Government CollegeKariavattom where I had two options topick for my studies, Biotechnology andBiochemistry. Biotechnology appearedto me more like a hybrid of Botany andMicrobiology. I found Biochemistry more

From the Diary ofCU-Kerala faculty

The journey towards understanding the

intricacies in a cancer cell

appealing because this gives anopportunity to learn chemistry of thebiological systems, be it plants oranimals. Though skeptical of the job

prospects, I joined the course with thefull support of my family. The first yearwas not very interesting as many topicsin the syllabus were studied in our class

V.B. Sameer Kumar


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XII. Things changed during the secondyear when we were exposed to morecomplex and novel topics. It would beunfair on my part, if I fail to mention Mr.Sunil V. Paul who took an honest effortto make us big fans of the SubjectBiochemistry and to graduate us as well-qualified biochemists at the end of thecourse. Since the foundation in thesubject was built very strong, Post-graduation course in Biochemistry atUniversity of Kerala was a smooth sail.However, a bunch of very eminentprofessors further nurtured my interestsin Biochemistry. Before, the results of myM.Sc. published, the CSIR results cameout; to my surprise, I qualified it! I giveall credits of this big achievement to mypost-graduate and graduate teachers;because, I could achieve it without anyspecial training for CSIR. The followingUniversity rank in M.Sc., therefore wasnot a great surprise to me.

Since I had a prestigious nationalresearch fellowship with me that too Iobtained while completing my M.Sc.,there was no second thought on mycareer none other than research. Myresearch in the field of cancer biologystarted there that continued through mypostdoctoral research at the WeizmannInstitute of Science, Israel and CCHMC,USA. During my doctoral and

postdoctoral research life I had been witheminent scientists and I get exposed tothe latest trends in molecular cancerbiology ranging from generating thetransgenic knockout mice to techniqueslike bone marrow transplantations forresearch on myeloma. The remaining partof the article will be focused on reflectionof my thoughts based on the experienceI have gained till now and the work goingin my current lab.

My research in the field of Cancerbiology started at the doctoral level whenProf. Sudhakaran asked a group of threelatest entries into his lab, which includedme, if we could take up a challengingaspect of cancer biology, i.e.angiogenesis. It took us a month tounderstand the field before we daringlyconfirmed that we are on to it. Briefly,angiogenesis is the process of formationof new blood vessels from pre-existingones, which plays a pivotal role in severalphysiological process such as woundhealing, embryo development, ovulationand pathological condition such astumor development, arthritis etc. Tumorscannot grow beyond 1-2 cubicmillimeters because; oxygen andnutrients have difficulty diffusing to thecells in the center of the tumor, causing astate of cellular hypoxia to which thetumor responds by secreting pro-

angiogenic growth factor. Induction ofangiogenesis thereafter plays animportant role in progression andmetastasis of cancer.

Since this field was rather new in thestate of Kerala, we had tough timestandardizing things and we could runour first formal experiment only 1.5 yearsafter joining the lab. What I want toemphasize is the importance of teamworkin scientific research. I strongly believethat, the well-organized teamwork paid alot and helped us to initiate a very goodscientific career. It would be highlyinappropriate, if I do not mention thenames of the other team members, whowere, Dr. Kiran M.S. (scientist CLRI,Chennai) and late Dr. Viji R.I. (Faculty atCentral University of Kerala). During thedoctoral research, our group couldefficiently prove the role of extracellularmatrix in the regulation of angiogenesis.With an appealing list of publications, itwas an easy walk to my postdoctoral lab,where I secured the position one yearbefore the submission of my Ph.D. thesis.

I joined Prof. David Wallach’s (awonderful human being and a seriousscientist) lab at the Weizmann Instituteof Science, Rehovot, Israel, just twomonths after submitting my thesis. InProf. Wallach’s lab, I was like ‘Alice inwonderland’. The big group wasinvolved in work, from as simple as ourroutine cell culture to the knock out andbone marrow transplantationexperiments. My experience in David’slab really changed my perspective ofthinking and doing science. The labroutine was tough and demanding, butagain, the teamwork helped a lot. Alongwith Dr. Konstantin Bogdanov, we weregiven a team of 5 members to handle aproject on a molecule called NIK (NFKBinducing Kinase) and we could do a lotof good science there from generationof NIK knock out mice, NIK mutantanalysis in mice using bone marrowtransplantation technique etc. Apart fromthe scientific fete, there was a real healthycultural interchange, which has a greatinfluence on my personality. Apart fromall these, we could meet eminent

Dr. V.B. Sameer Kumar with his research team



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Scientists, whom we were familiar as theauthors of our favorite reference and textbooks only until then. The list includesProf. Dan S. Tawfik, who is popular as ascientist who unraveled the mystery of‘Abzymes’, but presently working onprotein engineering. Later, my wife Dr.Viji R.I had got an opportunity to work inhis lab as a post-doctoral fellow. We alsomet the Great scientist Prof. Wilchek whodiscovered the biotin-avidin interaction,but shunned any sort of patent for hisdiscovery for the sake of larger scientificand laymen community. The list isobviously long that includes manyNobel laureates like Ada Yonath.

After the project at Prof. Wallach’slab, I moved to USA at CincinnatiChildren’s Hospital Medical Centre tojoin Dr. Biplab Dasgupta’s lab. Here wewere working on glioblastomamultiforme (brain tumor) in transgenicmouse model systems and humansamples. My days here usually startedwith the prayer “if the day ends with nopatients’ samples”! I had a reason forthis peculiar prayer. I knew that thesepatients will have only about 6 moremonths time to succumb to death. So, tome it is more like I am receiving a patient’sdeath warrant. But, I console myself withthe philosophy that “one has to decayto become the manure for many othersin the coming generations”. All theresearch that we do around the worldwould benefit the patients some day andat that time, apart from applauding thescientists, we should also remember thepeople behind the curtain, who haddonated samples just for the benefit offuture generations.

During those busy days, the life wasfull of surprises, I met an Indian at myapartment doors who introduced himselfas Siva; during our subsequentinteraction I realized that he was myscientific competitor. But, he became oneof my closest friend and a collaboratorlater, throwing the light that amonggood Science practitioners onlycreativity and friendship prevail. It wasaround this time, that I attended theinterview for Asst. Prof. at the Central

University of Kerala for which I wasselected.

After joining CUK, I realized that howpainful and laborious it was to build myown lab in a very infant University.Though it was difficult, the support fromthe fellow staff members, both teachingand non-teaching side helped me a lot toestablish a small lab, which currentlyhosts three externally funded projectsand 8 Ph.D. scholars. Like all the otherlabs in the University, our lab also enjoysa very good support from the Universityand could graduate 25 M.Sc.(dissertations) and 4 M.Phil. Scholars,hitherto.

Research in our lab focuses onelucidating the role of non-coding RNAin the process of angiogenesis and anticancer drug resistance, apart fromemploying novel strategy of protein

engineering to develop probable anti-angigogenic and anti tumor drugcandidates. Though we have gained alot of insight in cancer biology, I feel, wehave a long way to go before we couldunderstand and defeat cancer!

Before concluding I would like toemphasize again on the importance ofgood team work in conjugation withcollaborative and multidisiplinaryresearch approach to address healthissues and when we start doing goodscience we realize that scientist is aglobal citizen without the borders orfences of statehood or culture.

(Dr. V.B. Sameer Kumar is anAssistant Professor in the Departmentof Biochemistry and Molecular Biologyin Central University of Kerala;[email protected])

Conservation worth much...But Cost Nothing...


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The glory forgotten in amiability-----Alfred Russel Wallace

A scrutiny of the history of sciencetells several tales about how it hashonored many eminent personalities whohave tried to unravel the mystery of theworld and succeeded in it; how it hasbeen ignorant of the great talents thatwere buried in the graves without beingknown to the world; how men havelonged for the fame they deserved butwere overpowered by the brutality of“fate”; the story still continues. Butamong them all there is an unreadmanuscript that recites how a glory waslost in an amiable sacrifice.

Alfred Russel Wallace- presentlyrenowned as the co-discoverer of the

Theory of Natural Selection- was bornon 8th January, 1823 into an ordinaryfamily at Usk, Monmouthshire, England.The early periods of his life were sameas that of a common person but hispassion for science changed the worldhe lived in.

Wallace was primarily anentomologist who also found interest inthe natural history. His adorable passionfor insects is visible in his incomparablecollection of insects peculiarly of thosebelonging to Lepidoptera (butterflies)and Coleoptera (beetles and weevils).With 15 of his papers published in thejournal ‘Transactions’ of the RoyalEntomological Society, he is still

Akhila B. NairMSc Ist Semester Student

remembered as the society’s reputedmember. He presided it during 1870-71.

Wallace and Natural SelectionWallace matched Darwin’s

intelligence in the notion that the presentspecies must be a result of the pastevolutionary changes. Darwin began hiswork on the Theory of Natural Selection1839, while Wallace came up with thesimilar idea in 1858. Wallace has beenpublishing occasional journals on hisexpeditions of various lands and thespecimen collection since 1849.

In 1855, the most significant of hispapers was published with the ‘SarawakLaw’ which stated that “Every specieshas come into existence coincident both

History Note


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in time and space with a pre-existingclosely allied species”. Darwin, who wasacquainted to reading many of Wallace’spapers, realized him as a seriouscontender in the race to untwine themystery of evolution..

Once vigilant, Darwin began writingfull accounts of the Natural selection,fearing the pace with which Wallace wasapproaching the core of the idea. Bothof them were greatly inspired byMalthus’ essay on ‘Population’(originally published in 1798; Wallacespecified the influential pages from the6th edition in 1826).

Charles DarwinIn 1858, Darwin’s manuscript was

still in the ‘workshop’, when Wallace hitwith a similar idea during his stay atGilolo, a remote Indonesian island. Thegreat genius was conquered by an attackof the malarial fever. But his determinationwas strong. From Ternate, Indonesia, hewrote a detailed essay explaining histheory and sent it together with acovering letter to Darwin on 9th March,1858 (asking for his comment). He knewDarwin from earlier correspondence andalso that he was deeply interested in thesubject of species transmutation (asevolution was then called).

The letter reached Darwin on 18th

June, 1858 (roughly 3 months later).Darwin, busy with his manuscript washorrified on reading the essay byWallace. The impulse caused by thecontent of the letter stimulated Darwin

to write another letter addressing hisclose friend Charles Lyell, who himselfwas a giant in the scientific world of thattime. The most famous lines of this letterare:

“I never saw a more strikingcoincidence. If Wallace had my M.S.sketch written out in 1842 he could nothave made a better short abstract! ... Soall my originality, whatever it mayamount to, will be smashed”.

His loyalty towards his friend tookLyell to Joseph Hooker (a person withclose acquaintance to Darwin). Theyboth decided to present his essaycoupled with a long letter Darwin wroteto the American biologist Asa Grayduring 1857 on the theory, rather thanattempting to seek Wallace’s permission.

The plan was well executed and Darwinpresented his paper at a regular meetingof the Linnaean Society of London on 1st

July, 1858.In August, 1858 Darwin’s work on

natural selection was published in theRoyal Society’s Zoological Journalunder the title “On the Tendency ofSpecies to Form Varieties; And On thePerpetuation of Varieties and Speciesby Natural Means of Selection” alongwith Wallace’s essay written to Darwin.The only unusual fact was that Darwin’scontributions were placed beforeWallace’s essay, thus emphasizing hispriority to the idea.

On 24th November,1858 Darwin hadhis shortened ‘abstract’ on the muchlonger work on natural selectionpublished as “Origin of Species”.Wallace was so impressed by its contentthat he proclaimed book would “…liveas long as the “Principia” of Newton.Wallace waited for thirty years after thisto produce his own big account of naturalselection, which he called“DARWINISM” in 1889.

This act by Wallace gained him thetitle of amiability and modesty. He neverquestioned Darwin (who was 14 yearselder to him) on his deed instead herespected his seniority. Wallace couldnever equal Darwin in the earned wealthbut the fame he earned is more than thatof any other scientific genius.

Wallace’s TravelogueWallaceaLike Darwin, Wallace also depended

on the round-the-globe travel to makeobservations and form relevant theories.His first travel was to the Amazon tocollect and study animals and plants,with the goal of understanding howevolutionary change takes place. For thisstarted from Brazil in April 1848, butalthough Wallace made many importantdiscoveries during his four years in theAmazon Basin, he did not manage tosolve the great ‘mystery of mysteries’ ofhow evolution works. Withdisappointment he returned to Englandin October 1852, after surviving a

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disastrous shipwreck which destroyedall the thousands of natural historyspecimens he had painstakinglycollected.

In 1854 he set off on an expeditionto the Malay Archipelago (Singapore,Malaysia and Indonesia), which providedthe fertile land to ‘sow and reap’ his ideason the process of Evolution. He spenteight years travelling, collecting, writing,and thinking about evolution.

In Sarawak, Borneo, duringFebruary 1855, Wallace produced one ofthe ‘Sarawak Law’ which brought himseveral steps closer to the theory ofnatural Selection. Finally he succeededin his attempts when he came up withthe clear idea of Natural Selection fromGilolo in February, 1858. Later he movedto Ternate, from where he wrote a letterto Darwin. But it took a long time for hisideas to be given an honor equal to thoseof Darwin.

The ‘Wallace Line’Though the memories about

Wallace are centered on the theory ofNatural Selection, there are some otherinstances which preserved his name forever.

WallaceaA map of the Malayan Archipelago

showing Wallace lineWallace during his travel through,

what is now known as the Indonesianislands, found sharp variation betweenthe floral and faunal diversity of theislands of Bali and Lombok, Northbetween Borneo and Sulawesi and Southof the Philippine islands. More strikingly

there was no large geographicaldistinctness between the two regions.Studies continued and there originatedan imaginary line which stood aboundary between the Asian and theWallacean regions now termed as theWallace Line.

The zone of faunal transitionbetween Australia and South East Asiadetermined by the Wallace line is knownas the Wallacea.

The Biogeographical RegionsReturning from the Malayan

expedition, Wallace found the drive ofhis scientific enthusiasm towards thestudy of distribution of vertebrates inthe world and construction of a map,delineating regions within which the setsof species were similar. These turned outto be the six biogeographical regions-Nearctic, Neotropic, Palearctic,Ethiopian, Oriental and Australian. Theintroduction of these not only facilitatedthe study of animal distribution but alsohelped in establishing the evolutionarylinks between the species in each ofthese regions. Later the Oceania regionwas added to the list.

Wallace’s works:Wallace was a person with immense

potential and courage to speak on eventhe most controversial issues under theSun and also was ready to face thecriticisms. He created several works onmatters other than entomology or naturalhistory. Some of his works includes morethan 1000 articles and 22 books,including The Malay Archipelago,Darwinism, Island life and The

Geographical Distribution of Animals.He also wrote on topics such as politics,spiritualism, astrobiology, conservationbiology, biogeography andanthropology.

Specimen collection:A part of Wallace’s collectionHis passion for insects and his urge

to trace the natural history made himgrow his interest towards collection andpreservation of various specimensincluding 110,000 insects, 7,500 shells,8,050 bird skins, and 410 mammal andreptile specimens. Moreover, heintroduced probably more than fivethousand species to science.

During his expedition on theMalayan Archipelago some of hisexperiments had the prime focus on thePierid butterflies (commonly calledSulfur butterflies due their wingcoloration with a yellow tinge).

A collection of Sulfur butterfliesThe Eternal SleepOn 7 November 1913, Wallace died

at home in the country house he calledOld Orchard at Broadstone, Dorset,which he had built a decade earlier. Hewas 90 years old.

His death was widely reported inthe press. The New York Times calledhim “the last of the giants belonging tothat wonderful group of intellectualsthat included, among others, Darwin,Huxley, Spencer, Lyell, and Owen,whose daring investigationsrevolutionized and evolutionised thethought of the century.”


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Plant-animal and plant-microbialinteractions are the major topics ofcurrent research in India and abroad.They have tremendous direct practicalapplications in the areas of cropproduction and food security, cropprotection, forest management andconservation. India, despite have a hugebiodiversity protected in the three globalbiodiversity hotspots, indigenous andlocal community conserved sites andagroecosystems, our knowledge on thefundamental aspects of our bioresourcesis very poor. We do not have baselinedata of the efficient pollinators of ourcrop plants including the plantationcrops despite, we are cultivating themfor centuries. We jump to topics, suchas DNA recombinant technologies andgenetically-modified crops, transgeniccrops and so on to produce cultivars ofour requirement that has both socio-ecological and economic implications.We forget the fact that a cross-pollinating bee is equally helping us tomaintain the genetic heterogeneity anddiversity within a crop species throughthe production of quality seeds. If we donot have baseline information on thebiotic interactions in our long-servingcrops, one can imagine the knowledgegap in our wild plants. Plants are bothsuffered and survived from animals andmicrobes. At both the ends, insect as acommunity play a major role for the

Happenings

Ecology of plant-animal interactions:

pollination, seed dispersal and tritrophic interactions

Prof. V.V. Belvadi delivers a lecture

from a lab session on bee pheromone extraction withDr. D.G. Naik

participants in a field session

survival of plants. They extend essentialservices to plants, such as pollination,defense, seed dispersal, decompositionand nutrient cycling. At the other endinsects are the major herbivores and seedpredators in tropical forests.

Recognizing growing interest inthis area a comprehensive workshop (8days) was organized at CentralUniversity of Kerala. It provided a uniqueplatform for the exchange of scientific

ideas among theselected group ofactive researchers inthe broad field ofp l a n t - a n i m a linteraction. Resourcepersons from CentralUniversity of Kerala,Ashoka Trust forResearch in Ecologyand the Environment(ATREE), DelhiUniversity, AndhraUniversity, RainforestResearch Station,Calcutta University,Agharkar ResearchInstitute, Centre forEcological Sciences atIndian Institute ofScience, University ofAgricultural Sciencesat Bangalore andDharward, St. Xavier’scollege (Mumbai) andSacred Heart College(Cochin) lead theworkshop.

Inaugurating themeeting Dr. K.R.Shivanna FASc, FNA,FNAAS (ATREE-Bangalore) the

Palatty Allesh Sinu

(A report of workshop on Ecology ofPlant-Animal interactions conducted atCentral University of Kerala)


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renowned plant-reproductive biologiststressed the need to generate thebaseline information on the naturalhistory of the plant-animal interactionsin our crop and wild plant species tounderstand the strength of theinteraction per se and to value its servicein the oriental tropical forest andagricultural systems. Since it is an inter-disciplinary subject, he stressed theimportance of collaboration among theplant biologists, ecologists,entomologists and microbiologists for adesirable outcome from a research in thistopic. In a pollination or tri-trophicinteraction study, an entomologist cansolve many issues at the field itself, hepointed out.

Palatty Allesh Sinu (CentralUniversity of Kerala) through providingan overview of the workshop emphasizedthe need of a coordinated researchproject to study the pollinator fauna ofour several plantation and vegetablecrops. Since the pollination is a mostdynamic process, data should begenerated at spatial and temporal scalesfor an effective management of either acrop or wild plant species. He hoped thatthe national-level participation in theworkshop itself was sufficient to createa network for monitoring the pollinatorfauna across India.

K.R. Shivanna (ATREE) explainedthe complete series of the sequentialevents in the pistil after the pollen isdeposited there that includes thecontinuous chemical dialogue betweenthe pollen grain and the saprophytictissues in the pistil before they dischargethe male gametes in the embryo sac forfertilization in his masterly class onpollen-pistil interaction. He concernedabout the current post-graduate syllabusused to teach plant science in variousuniversities and colleges in India thathas replaced these basic topics byadvanced fields such as biotechnologyand genomics. In his second lecture, heexplained the adaptations of the weedsfor their success inany harshe n v i r o n m e n t ;pollination in mostof them does notneed a pollinator,dispersal of seedsis through externalattachment toanimals or by windand the seeds arehighly dormant.

S h a s h i d h a rV i r a k t a m a t h(University ofA g r i c u l t u r a l

Sciences-Dharward) and D.G. Naik(Agharkara Research Institute-Pune)stressed the significance of beeattractants and repellants as tools tomaintain the pollinator fauna in cropplants. They stressed that 55 out of 160million hectares of agricultural landshave entomophilous crops and one thirdof the food production comes frompollination. Since the queen mandibularpheromones of seven Apis species areremarkably similar to each other the beeattractants based on bee pheromone canmaintain the bees for more time in a givencrop. Since the bee-pheromone basedlures are expensive and to certain extentprobative for Indian farmers, D.G. Naikstressed the need to integrate it with theplant-based lures. He said that the leafextracts of Fagara budrunga andSwertia densifolia are good beeattractants. Later he gave hands ontraining on the pheromone extractionfrom the pheromone glands of Apisdorsata.

P.A. Sinu (Central UniversityofKerala) explained that the bees since,constitute to the majority of thepollinators, an understanding of theirforaging behavior and fidelity helps usto pick up and take necessary measuresat habitat level for facilitating the rightpollinator species in a given crop system.Citing his research in Amomumsubulatum, he said that the managed

from an open discussion with the precision farmers at MSSRRF, Waynad

Prof. Sashidhar Virakhthmath delivers lecture.


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honey bees are not necessarily anefficient pollinator for all plant species;rather, they can be good robbers ofpollen. Rigorous examination of stigmaafter the visitation ceased by a given“visitor” species can determine itsefficiency as a pollinator.

Joysree Cranham and PratibhaYadav (Centre for Ecological Sciences atIndian Institute of Sience) explainedplant-animal interaction as an example ofcoevolution by taking the cases of fig-fig wasp interaction and ant-ant plant(Humboldtia sp) interactions. V.V.Belavadi (University of AgriculturalSciences Bangalore) through his lectureon the pollination system in Eletteriacardamomum in Mudigere area ofKarnataka State said that cardamom ispollinated well by the rock bees among anumber of visitor species and managinghoney bee colonies in the plantationscan substantially increase theproductivity of small cardamom.

Rajesh Tandon (Delhi University)discussed the ecological andevolutionary consequences of nectarrobbing and the mechanism by whichplants circumvent and minimize theadverse effects of nectar robbing on theirfitness. He also gave a hands-on trainingon the plant-pollinator network analysisin the R platform.

Plants are able to activate defensemechanisms against various forms ofinsect attacks. Insects release variouselicitors along with other componentsthat induce defensive response in plants.The defense mechanisms could be director indirect; in indirect mechanism theplants “call” for help from otherorganisms, such as predators andparasitoids by releasing some volatilesor other chemicals. Sujatha Deshpande(St Xaviers college-Mumai) unraveledthe chemical interaction happening in thetri-trophic interaction in the workshop.

Giby Kuriakose (Sacred HeartCollege-Cochin) gave an outline on thediversity of pollination syndromes seenin the plant kingdom. By taking the caseof orchid pollination system he explained

deception as a pollination mechanism.Solomon Raju (Andhra University)stressed the relevance of studying thereproductive biology of several endemicplant species seen in the Eastern Ghatsof India, a forgotten landscape. Heexplained the dispersal modes and seedpredation systems in the plants ofEastern Ghats.

Lectures were devoted on plant-microbial interactions too in theworkshop. Sudheep N.M. and JasmineShah (Central University of Kerala)emphasized that many insect-plantinteractions are facilitated by the aboveand below-ground endophytic fungi andother microbes. They are growthpromoters and help in seed germinationof several hard seeds because of theirenzymatic action.

The workshop had several field andlaboratory oriented practicalexperiments. Participants were trained inthe basics of bee systematics, thepollination experiments, pollinationefficiency of visitors, pollen-pistilinteractions, acetolysis as a tool to studythe pollen structure and architecture,collection methods of pollinators,dispersal and seed predationexperiments, basics of transgenics,enzymatic action of endophyticsymbiotic fungi and R statisticalpackage.

Participants and resource personswere given an opportunity to visit andinteract with the farmers, particularly theprecision and hitech farmers at M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation atWayanad. The polyhouse vegetablegrowers are producing several exoticvarieties of vegetables, but most of themare pollinator-dependent. Currently, thefarmers are are practicing manualpollination. The interaction with theresource persons gave a framework forway forward to enhance the pollinatorfauna in the polyhouses throughparticipatory research. V. Sivan andDhanya C.S. (MSSRF) gave a guided tourthrough the well-planned botanicalgarden of MSSRF.

*A report on the national-levelworkshop on “Ecology of plant-animalinteractions: concepts and practices”held at Riverside Transit Campus ofCentral University of Kerala, Kasaragodduring 20-28 May 2014. It was supportedby the Central University of Kerala andBritish Ecological Society, London.

Palatty Allesh Sinu/ Course DirectorCentre for Ecology and EntomologyDepartment of Animal ScienceCentral University of KeralaPadannakad 671314, Kasaragod, [email protected]

Participants of the workshop at MSSRRF campus


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Recent times the topic, human-wildlife conflict received much attentionin scientific, popular and social media asit poses major threats to the wildlifepopulations and man and his cropsystems in the fringes of the forests andin urban systems. Is the human-wildlifeconflict really increasing when comparedto the past? If so, what are the reasons?Can we bring the conflict down and thecoexistence up? To discuss some ofthese volatile topics, a one-day national-level brainstorming symposium wasorganized by the Central University ofKerala (CU-Kerala) as its outreachprogram and as a part of the recently heldSwasraya Bharat 2014, science festivalof Kerala. A total of 292 participantsrepresenting the farmers, forest officials,wildlife biologists, national wildlife boardand biodiversity board members,behavioral ecologists, media persons,researchers, post-graduate andsecondary-level students of localschools, colleges and the Universitiesattended this symposium.

In the welcome address, PalattyAllesh Sinu (CU-Kerala) highlighted thatthe proclaimed coexistence between manand the wildlife in India if gained thestatus of conflict, certainly it hassomething to do with the threshold ofthe tolerance level of man and the wildanimals. The unprecedented habitat lossof the wild animals decreased theirthreshold of tolerance to man and hisprocesses. Urbanization, climate change,crop loss, the declining value of cropproducts, governmental policies relatedto agriculture and the trade and the

Happenings

Man-animal conflict or coexistence:

what do we want?

occasional wildlife raid to his“encroached and intensified” farms aresome of the related factors affecting ourlevel of tolerance to the wild animals. G.Gopakumar (Vice Chancellor, CU-Keralaand a renowned political scientist) in hispresidential remarks emphasized that theincrease in human population, resultingencroachment of man to the habitats ofwildlife and the poor planning of our landfor the developmental activities are theobvious reasons of the conflict betweenman and wildlife, and we certainlyenvisage a coexistence between man andthe wildlife that our country was onceproud on. Mr. Harish B. Nair (KasaragodDistrict Panchayat member) representingthe farmer community was apprehensiveon the increasing cases of crop loss towild animals, and the poor response ofthe forest department to reduce theconflict.

P.S. Easa (Member, NationalWildlife Board and Director, KeralaForest Research Institute) in his keynote

address gave an overview of human-wildlife conflict in India. Quoting thetravelogues of English travelers in Indiaduring and after the colonial period hesaid that Wayanad was once dotted bythe machans (treetop vigilant hubs) andthe people in a community level used topractice in night patrolling to protect theircrops from elephants in the fringes offorests in Kerala. This indicates that thehuman-wildlife conflict if we consider asa problem was persistent throughout thepast. The recent estimate shows that thedeath rate of the human beings to thewildlife (excluding the snake bites) isdeclining now when compared to theescalated rate of wild animals’ death tothe human beings. In the nationalscenario, crop loss and the humancasualties to the wild animals are far lowerfor Kerala than what is being brought upby the other States, such as Jharkhand,Chattisgarh, Assam, Bihar and parts ofNorth and West Bengal, where the nightpatrolling by the farmers and the forest

Hon. V.C. of Cu-Kerala Prof. (Dr.) G.. Gopakumar inauguarates the function

Palatty Allesh Sinu

(A report of National symposium on human wildlife conflict)


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guards is more inclusive, scientific andeffective. Kerala being a densely-populated State, the loss of qualitywildlife habitat for grazing and preyinghas increased. Highlighting the casehistories of different types of wildlifeconflicts and the strategies used toovercome the conflict he said that thewild animals adapt and surmount every

new method that the farmers and theforests departments are devising everynow and then. Solar fencing, despite aneffective strategy against the elephants,the technical hiccups in the process ofinstallation and the unavailability of atrained farmer or technician for itscontinued maintenance often weakensits efficiency. Wild boar is a global pest

of many crops both in developing anddeveloped countries. When the world isgranting permission to kill this speciesIndia should think twice before grantingsuch permissions to Indian citizens aswild boar is our native species unlike aninvasive or alien species for many othercountries. Cloth-fencing (saree-fencing)is the most effective strategy against thewild boars.

Monkeys pose major threat tocrops in many areas. Crop raiding ofmonkeys has destabilized the localgovernments in North India. Sometimesago monkeys were confined only to thetemples and selected popular touristplaces in India, where both the monkeysand the man were coexisting together.India has 15 species of primates, fivespecies are seen in south India. Amongthem only Macaca radiata hasacclimatized to the human surroundings,so the conflicts too come only from thisspecies. Sindhu Radhakrishna (NationalInstitute of Advanced Studies, IISc,Bangalore) said that the primate-humanconflict is very common in urban andrural areas of India, now-a-days. Theattitude change of man, particularly theprovisioning habit, is the major reason

An interactive session with Dr. P.S. Easa (Member, National Wildlife Board)


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man

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why monkeys are more aggressive thesedays. Probably, the conflict frommonkeys is very common in urban areasnow-a-days, where it can be solved onlythrough effective garbage and solidwaste management. Caging andtranslocation of monkeys are thetraditional strategies used to reduce themonkey menace that is no longer a viablesolution as the cycle of conflict getsrepeated at the translocated place.Biologists are apprehensive about thefarmers’ argument of selective culling ofboth male and female monkeys based on

Professor, University College,Thiruvananthpuram and a notedenvironmentalist) was analyzing thescenario of human-wildlife conflicts inKasaragod District. The elephantconflict in Kasaragod got momentumsince 2008, when developmentalactivities including the fencing activitiesin the Karnataka part interrupted theelephant corridor that left a smallpopulation of elephants trapped in thefragmented forests of Kerala. Increasinggarbage deposits, particularly the wastefrom butcher shops, in the fringes of theforests invite the wild boar menace morefrequently to the villages and towns ofKasaragod District. Plantationcorporation of Kerala should considerdiversifying the crops in the revenueland. Buffer-zone management is vital inmitigating the issue in KasaragodDistrict.

Both human-elephant conflict andthe coexistence were high in tea-forestmatrix of the Western Ghats of India.Anand Kumar (Nature ConservationFoundation, Mysore) said that theconflict aggravates only during thesummer months. Once this is known,slight preparations at our side can reducethe human casualties and maintain thesafe passage of elephants to their naturalwater holes during the summer. Being amanaged landscape, coexistence ispossible only through enforcingappropriate warning systems. Being anorganized industry, tea plantations andfactories can be the hubs to give warningsignals, such as red lights and alarmsirens when the elephants are reportedmoving in the vicinity of a givenplantation. He shared the success storiesthat the NCF could bring out throughintegrating the electronic gadgets andsensors, local television and radiochannels and the tea industry for a safecoexistence of the elephants and the tea-pluckers in the Valparai reagion of theWestern Gahts. He said that any sort ofman-animal conflict can be solved onlythrough an inclusive approach. He found

Prof. E. Kunhikrishnan delivers a lecture

Sindhu Radhakrishna delivers a lecture

Ganesh Raghunathan delivers a lecture

the population size and structure canreduce the monkey menace. Sterilizationis a futile strategy to reduce thepopulation of monkeys. Insufficientcompensation from local governments tofarmers aggravated the conflict betweenmonkeys and human beings. She saidthat preventive management is a bettertactic than the reactive way ofmanagement. Now, a policy on bufferzone management should also beinculcated for an effective managementof monkeys in forest villages.

Leopard might be the only wild catspecies that live in all sorts of habitatsincluding the managed habitats andsettlements in rural and urban areas ofIndia. Ganesh Raghunathan (Wild lifeconservation society, Bangalore) saidthat leopards have tremendous ability tocoexist not only with man but also withseveral other wild cat species. Camera-trap images and monitoring of the radio-collared animals suggest that leopardsshow exceptional homing behavior asthere are evidences that relocatedleopards traveled 125 km through a rangeof contrast habitats to reach its hometerritory. The relocated animals either dieor come back to its home range in a weakcondition as there are territorial conflictsbetween the animals at relocated places.

Kasaragod, the northern District ofKerala shares its boundary with theforests of Kodagu, probably the westernextremity of the Mudumalai-Bandipur-Wayand-Nagarahole-Talacauverycorridor. The dense forests end inKarnataka and plantations start in Keralaat the boundary. Kasaragod’s forest hasan area of only about 100 sq km, which isscattered in a mosaic of humansettlements, plantations and arecaorchards; the maximum width of theforest tract is about 1.5 km (Fig. 1). Thisexplains why the recently-held elephantraid in the villages of Kasaragod waspersistent for many months recently thateventually end-up with the mysterious(herpes-related) death of a tuskerelephant, E. Kunhikrishnan (Retired


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that the human casualties to wild animalsare only a fraction when compared towhat is caused by the mosquitoes. Gaur-human conflict is scarcely reported insouth India as gaur is primarily a forest-dweller that scarcely moves out to thevillages as a browser. Abhishek K.R.(Keystone foundation, The Nilgiris) whomonitors the gaurs in the Nilgiri regionof Tamil Nadu found that gaurs raid thevegetable orchards during the summerin search of water, but the damage to thecrop is incurred when the farmers chasethe gaur from one vegetable garden tothe other and so on.

The symposium was summed upwith a panel discussion with the forestofficials, wildlife experts and the farmersand resulted in some importantrecommendations to bring down thehuman-wildlife conflict in south India.The primary recommendation was onbuffer-zone management. It stronglyadvocated enforcing the Supreme Courtdirection on maintaining the buffer zoneof 10 km radius with quality habitatssurrounding the core zone of theprotected areas. It strongly criticized thelocal governments on their plantation-based afforestation programs, andadvocated an immediate policy changeon the buffer zone habitat management.The buffer zones should be maintainedas fruit belts by planting native plants,such as Syzygium spp, Madhuca spp,Mimusops elengi, Artocarpus spp etc.to reduce the monkey menaces in theagricultural lands in the fringes. All thedevelopmental activities must beregulated in the buffer zone.Considering the fact that the workforce-hit forest departments are forced toguard of several absentee-ownedagricultural and horticultural lands in thefringes of the forests it is recommendedto bring out standard operationalprinciples specific to each locality withthe involvement of local panchayats,farmers and the forest departments. Localgovernments should consider extendinginsurance support to the agricultural

crops, and the forest departments shouldsimplify and expedite the processinvolved in paying compensation for theagricultural crop loss. Considering theMudumalai -Bandipur-Wayanad-Nagarahole-Talacauvery an importantelephant corridor, it is recommended toregulate all sorts of developmentalactivities that can affect the quality ofthe corridor. It applauded the Karnatakaforest department’s decision to continuethe ban on night-traffic in one of the busyroads intersecting the corridor inWayanad and Bandipur. It recommendeda national-level implementation of suchregulations in all major wildlife corridors.It strongly advocated the need forreinstating the night patrolling by thevillagers in all volatile places. The expertscriticized the local panchayats for theirinability to stop butcher waste dumpingin the fringes of the forests as that isidentified as one reason for populationrise in the wild boars in many States. Italso recommended an effective wastemanagement plan in urban tourist placesand streets nationwide to reduce thehuman-monkey conflicts. Consideringthe wider application of electronicgadgets and social media it stronglyadvocated the need for equipping the

forest departments with the latesttechnologies and to integrate theirproactive warning operations with theorganized institutions and industrieslocally, such as religious institutions andplantation industries, such as tea, coffeeand rubber as that grow more in thefringes of the forests.*A report on the brainstormingsymposium on the topic organized bythe Central University of KeralaPadannakad, Kasaragod on 15 October2014 as an event of Swasraya Bharath2014. We thank all the wildlife experts,forest department officials, mediarepresentatives, farmer friends,biodiversity board members, localpanchayat members and the studentsattended the symposium.

Palatty Allesh Sinu and M. NagarajanCentral University of Kerala, RiversideTransit Campus, Padannakad,Kasaragod 671 314, Kerala, [email protected]


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this much forest only in Kasaragod range! Photo Courtesy: Prof. E. Kunkikrshnan



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Impacts...

achievements...

KSCSTEResearch Fellowship(2014-15)

Sangeetha Varma V.MAsha. GThushara. V.VParvathi SurendranUmer AliArun D.AnupamaShilpa. OMithun SebastianAnet Antony

UGC-CSIR NET /JRF

Prajna RaiParvathi SurendranAnet AntonyHima. P.K.

GATE

Manoj. K.Asha. GAksah SamParvathi Surendran

Manoj. K attended ICAR supported training programmeon taxonomy of insects and mites at UAS, GKVKBangaluru

Sangeetha Varma V.M. attended ICAR supportedtraining programme on taxonomy of bees and otherpollinators at UAS, GKVK Bangaluru

Asha. G. presented a poster in International StudentsConference on Conservation Science, 2014

Sheeja C.C attended National workshop on “Techniquesin Animal Cell Culture and In vitro Toxicology”, April 1-10-2014 at Mahathma Gandhi- Doerenkamp Centre,Bharathidasan University, Thiruchirapally

Sheeja C.C attended Molecular and Protein ExpressionTraining Course, C-Camp March 10 - 14, 2014 NCBS,Bangaluru.

Dr. K R AbhishekProf. K R ShivannaDr. Rjesh TandonProf. RamaniProf. V V BelvadiDr. D G NaikDr. Sujatha DeshpandeDr. Joyshree CranhamMs. Pratiba YadavDr. Giby KuriakoseDr. Jasmine M ShahDr.Sudheep N MDr. Solomon Raju

Garibaldi L.A. …Sinu P.A. (2015) Trait matching of flowervisitors and crops predicts fruit set better than trait diversity.Journal of Applied Ecology 52: 1436-1444

Anusree T, Abhina C, Lishiba Balan PP, Rasna TV, Sinu PA(2015) Flower sex expression in Indian Cucurbit crops:implications for pollination and fruit set. Current Science 109:2299–2302.

Sinu, P.A. et al. (2015). In situ mortality of Hyposidra talaca(Geometridae: Lepidoptera) by its nucleopolyhedrovirus andcomparison of tea production in untreated and chemicalinsecticide-treated plots. Biocontrol Science and Technology25: 352-358.

Sinu PA, KR Shivanna (2015) Factors Affecting Recruitmentof a Critically-Endangered Dipterocarp Species, Vateria indicain the Western Ghats, India. PNAS India B: 1-6.

Nasreem, A., Sinu, P.A., Nasser, M. (2014). The medicinal annuallegume Senna (= Cassia) tora (L.) Roxb. and its insectassociations in Kerala, India. Entomon 39: 183-190.

Prof. E KunhikrishnanProf. Sashidhar VirakthmathDr. Kamalakshan kokkalT P PathmanabhanDr. N C InduchoodanDr. P S EasaDr. V V BinoyDr. SanthadeviDr. UshakiranP V GopinathanDr. Sindhu RadharishnaDr. Ganesh RaghunathanDr. Anand Kumar

Aknowledgements

Publications

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