KFRI Scientist Dr T V Sajeev in UN research body on forest invasive species
Dr. TV Sajeev, Senior Principal Scientist at KFRI has been nominated as India’s representative to the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN) by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
The APFISN is a network of 33 member countries in the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, which is a statutory body of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Sajeev will be India’s ‘focal point’ to the network. Sajeev will provide technical support to manage biological invasions and device strategies specific to the Asia-Pacific region.
Dr. Sajeev currently coordinates the nodal centre for biological invasions at the KFRI. He had been active in developing management strategies against the invasion of the Giant African Snail and the Red-eared Slider Turtle, which came to India from Africa and Mexico respectively and caused both economic and ecological impacts.
He is a member of the Madras High Court-constituted committee to plan strategies to manage invasive plants in the Nilgiris and the expert panel on biological invasions of the National Biodiversity Board. Recently, he had detected the Barnacle Wax Scale Insect, Ceroplastes cirripediformis, an invasive pest of horticultural crops, native to southern United States and the Caribbean Islands, which was established in Kerala recently.
Sajeev writes extensively on environment, nature and society. He is one of the most followed speakers on environment in the country thanks to his uncanny knack in elucidating complex scientific issues and theories.
