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Pankaj Sekhsaria

Associate Professor, Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay

Bio

Prof. Pankaj Sekhsaria’s main areas of research lie at the intersection of environment, science, society and technology. He has a deep interest in issues of the environment and wildlife conservation and simultaneously in understanding the complex relationships between society and S&T, particularly technology. One part of him is a compulsive story teller and it is his constant endeavour to keep writing, be it journalism, academic articles and hopefully books that allow for the fuller stories to be told.

Research Areas

  • Science and Technology Studies
  • S&T visioning and policy making
  • Technology, Society and Development
  • Environment and development
  • Citizen Science
  • Wildlife conservation
  • Island studies
  • Media studies
  • Academic Background

  • PhD in Science and Technology Studies, Maastricht University, Netherlands
  • MA in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
  • BE in Mechanical Engg from Pune University
  • Publications

    Books

  • 2019 (Forthcoming). The State of Wildlife in Maharashtra (1996-2015) – A compilation of new from the Protected Area Update (Editor), Rainfed Books, Chennai, Kalpavriksh and The Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Foundation.
  • 2019 Instrumental Lives – an intimate biography of an Indian Laboratory, Taylor and Francis; https://tinyurl.com/yapp5j85
  • 2018 Koneya Ale (The Last Wave in translation in Kannada), Navakarnataka Publications; http://www.navakarnatakaonline.com/koneya-ale-the-last-wave
  • 2017. Islands in flux – the Andaman and Nicobar story, Harper Litmus India; https://tinyurl.com/y8xdat4r
  • 2013. The State of Wildlife in Northeast India: (1996-2011) – A compilation of news from Protected Area Update (Editor), Foundation for Ecological Security, India; https://www.academia.edu/3152382/_THE_STATE_OF_WILDLIFE_IN_NORTHEAST_INDIA_1996_2011_A_Compilation_of_News_from_the_Protected_Area_Update_
  • 2010. The Jarawa Tribal Reserve Dossier – Cultural and Biological Diversities in the Andaman Islands (Joint Editor with Vishvajit Pandya), Kalpavriksh, Pune & UNESCO, Paris; https://www.academia.edu/2637014/The_Jarawa_Tribal_Reserve_Dossier_-_Cultural_and_Biological_Diversities_in_the_Andaman_Islands
  • 2003. Troubled Islands: Writings on the environment and indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands LEAD India and Kalpavriksh
  • Fiction

  • 2014. The Last Wave: An Island novel, Harper Collins India; https://tinyurl.com/y8xdat4r
  • Journal Articles

  • 2019. Media reporting of the Protected Areas in Maharashtra, India – a thematic analysis (with Trupthi Narayan). Journal of Threatened Taxa, Vol. 11, No. 3; https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/4461
  • 2018. The A&N islands are not an ‘empty space’. Ecology, Economy and Society – The INSEE Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1.; https://www.academia.edu/35129432/The_Andaman_and_Nicobar_Islands_are_not_an_empty_space
  • 2017. Visions for India: public participation, debate and the S&T community. Current Science, Vol. 113, No. 10, p. 1835-40 (with Naveen Thayyil); https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/113/10/1835.pdf
  • 2017. How Users Configure Producer Identities – Dilemmas of Retinoblastoma treatment in India. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. LII (40), p. 57-64 https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/40/special-articles/how-users-configure-producer-identities.html?0=ip_login_no_cache%3D1d4f024fd94116a19c11b46ee9874313
  • 2015. Disaster as a catalyst for military expansionism – The case of the Nicobar Islands. Economic and Political Weekly Vol. L (1), 3 January, p. 37-43; https://www.epw.in/journal/2015/1/special-articles/disaster-catalyst-military-expansionism.html-0
  • 2014. An Identity- Card on the wall: Identities in flux and ethics of technology change. Economic and Political Weekly Vol. XLIX (34), p. 65-69; http://www.epw.in/journal/2014/34/notes/identity-card-wall.html
  • 2013. Tribal reserves, IBAs, and bird conservation: The unique case of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indian Birds, Vol. 8 (4), 85-90; https://www.academia.edu/4171572/Tribal_reserves_IBAs_and_bird_conservation_The_unique_case_of_the_Andaman_and_Nicobar_Islands
  • 2013. The making of an indigenous scanning tunneling microscope. Current Science, Vol. 104 (9); www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/104/09/1152.pdf‎
  • 2009. When Chanos chanos became tsunami macchi: The post-December 2004 scenario in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. 106 (3); https://www.academia.edu/2636644/WHEN_CHANOS_CHANOS_BECAME_TSUNAMI_MACCHI_THE_POST-DECEMBER_2004_SCENARIO_IN_THE_ANDAMAN_and_NICOBAR_ISLANDS
  • 2007. Conservation in India and the Need to Think Beyond ‘Tiger vs. Tribal’. Biotropica, Volume 39 Issue 5 Page 575-577; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2007.00333.x
  • 2006. Andaman’s Tribal Reserves: Protecting Forests, Biodiversity and the Indigenous peoples. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. Vol. 103 (2&3)
  • 2001. Deforestation in Andaman and Nicobar: Its impact on Onge. Economic and Political Weekly, 22/09/2001; http://www.epw.in/special-articles/deforestation-andaman-and-nicobar.html
  • 2001. Illegal logging and Deforestation in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India: The Story of Little Andaman Island. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Hathworth Press & Food Products Press, USA, Volume 19, Nos. 1/2/3; http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J091v19n01_14#.Uqgjyo1SawY
  • Book Chapters

  • 2017. STS for development in CA Miller, U Felt & L. Smith-Doerr (Eds), The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (2017), MIT Press (co-author with Aalok Khandekar, Koen Beumer, Annapurna Mamidipudi and Wiebe Bijker); https://www.academia.edu/31739578/STS_Science_and_Technology_Studies_for_Development
  • 2013. The making of an indigenous STM: Technological Jugaad as a Culture of Innovation in India in Konrad, Kornelia, Christopher Coenen, Anne Dijkstra, Colin Milburn, and Harro van Lente (Eds.), Shaping Emerging Technologies: Governance, Innovation, Discourse, Berlin: IOS Press / AKA; https://www.academia.edu/5082651/The_making_of_an_indigenous_Scanning_Tunneling_Microscope_and_Technological_Jugaad_as_a_culture_of_innovation_in_India
  • 2012. Deforestation in the Andaman and Nicobar – Its impact on Onge in Indira Munshi (Editor), The Adivasi Question, Issues of Land, Forest and Livelihood, Orient Blackswan and Economic and Political Weekly
  • Book Reviews

  • Reaching out to the Past, Conservation and Society Review: Review of The Nicobar Islands – Cultural Choices in the Aftermath of the Tsunami bu Simron Jit Singh and Oliver Lehman,. Czernin Verlag, 2006; http://www.conservationandsociety.org/article.asp?issn=0972-4923;year=2006;volume=4;issue=1;spage=173;epage=175;aulast=Sekhsaria
  • Shifting Ground, Effectively and convincingly, The Book Review: Review Of Shifting Ground: People, Animals and Mobility in India’s Environmental History Edited By Mahesh Rangarajan And K. Sivaramakrishnan Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2014, Pp. 308
  • Reports

  • 2019. Citizen Science in India – An initial Mapping and Analysis, DST Centre for Policy Research, IIT Delhi (with Naveen Thayyil)
  • 2010. Putting life on the front page – biodiversity reporting guidelines, Interpress Service, Rome; https://www.academia.edu/2950678/Putting_life_on_the_front_page_-_Biodiversity_Reporting_Guidelines
  • Talks and Seminars

  • Webinar titled The Lab As The Site Of A Historical Excavation under the aegis of Archives Public Lecture Series, organized by NCBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9eEsAf59w
  • Honours and Awards

  • Fellow of the Leadership in Environment and Development (LEAD) programme
  • Journalism fellowship by the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) Process to write on issues of biodiversity and conservation in the mainstream media in 2002
  • National Foundation for India (NFI) Media Fellowship 2005-06 for writing on issues of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands
  • Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Media Fellowship 2008-09 for writing on issues of human-wildlife conflict
  • Forum for Environmental Journalists of India – Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) Media Fellowship 2015 for writing on the environment and conservation issues of the Tambaraparani river basin in Southern Tamil Nadu
  • Editor, Protected Area Update, Kalpavriksh since 1998
  • Courses Taught

  • Appropriate Technology
  • Technology Society and Development
  • Science and Technology Policy
  • Positions Held

    Senior Project Scientist, DST Centre for Policy Research , IIT Delhi