Pachmarhi Field station

The National Center for Biological Sciences, Pachmarhi Field Station is located on the Satpura plateau in Central India in the army town of Pachmarhi, Hoshangabad district, Madhya Pradesh. It is the highest point of Central India surrounded by a mind-boggling diversity of life, geology and history. Located in the middle of Satpura Tiger Reserve, Pachmarhi has a long history of biodiversity science. It is home to India’s oldest forest department office, high-grade plantations, a colonial past and a highly motivated forest department. But Satpura’s best-held secret is probably in its strategic location and elevation gradient that has given rise to multiple habitat-types from dry scrub to evergreen forests and perennial streams. In fact, its geographical location has historically allowed it to be a conduit for dispersal of many Himalayan and Malayan life forms to the Western Ghats. This important work in biogeography is famously known by the name ‘The Satpura Hypothesis’ by its proponent Dr. Sunder Lal Hora. From tigers, sloth bears and leopards to pangolins, honey badgers and Eurasian otters, sarus cranes, Indian skimmers and spotted creeper ,bar-headed geese, fire-capped tits and vultures, medicinal plants, edible fungi and other indigenous wisdom,  evergreen sal and low rainfall areas, freshwater fish and stunning invertebrates, the Satpuras offer a treat to scientists, enthusiasts, tourists and the curious mind.

                                        Bird monitoring workshop-2017

When Department of Atomic Energy, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research wound up its operations in High Energy Gamma Ray Observatory at Pachmarhi owing to too much of light pollution and shifted its base to Ladakh, it was handed over to the biological wing of TIFR, the NCBS, because Central India was a relative void when it came to ecological research as compared to the Western Ghats and Northeast India, which are the traditional biodiversity hotspots.

The Field Station aims to be a facility with a constant footfall of students, researchers, government personnel and the general public including school children. Since NCBS formally took over the field station from 2016, and extensive renovation, maintenance, upkeep was undertaken. We resumed operations at the field station officially on 07-Aug-2017 and things began rolling in earnest from 10-Sep-2017. Since then, we have been active in the region working directly with the forest department, labs within NCBS, collaborations with both governmental and non-governmental organizations in the region as well as universities both in India and abroad. Find below the details of some of the projects being undertaken by NCBS Pachmarhi Field Station.

Work is currently on varied fronts such as the ecology and conservation of prehistoric rock art, life histories and diversity studies on hawk moths, bird surveys, carbon sequestration, sound-scaping research, resolution of bird genomics and host-plant botanical garden for lepidopterans

We work with universities including labs within NCBS, IISERs, Columbia University New York, government organizations such as Madhya Pradesh forest department, education departments, and non- governmental organizations such as Wildlife Conservation Trust, Bird Count India, and various responsible eco-tourism organizations of the landscape.

We believe in the power of nature education and outreach and have worked on projects such as naturalist training, nature education to schoolkids, bird monitoring workshops, workshops on palaeo-anthropology and palaeo-ecology and clean-up of biodiversity hotspots in the tourism zone.

Any researcher interested in working in the landscape can make use of the facilities of the field station that include basic but furnished rooms, secure spaces, genetic laboratory, field vehicle and a scientific ambience. Interested people may contact below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

Dr. Savita Chib, 

Field Station Manager,

National Center for Biological Sciences, Tata Observatory,

Amrak Bhavan, Near Champak Bungalow,

Pachmarhi, Hoshangabad District, Madhya Pradesh, 461881.

Email :anupb(at)ncbs(dot)res(dot)in, ncbspachmarhi(at)gmail(dot)com

Phone Number: 07578-252113, 9880015751 (Savita)

Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/Esz6xdrqB7U2