Abha Manohar K Editor

Abha Manohar K, Ph.D. is currently working as Assistant Professor, Forestry in Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India with teaching and research experience of more than five years. She holds a master degree from Sam Higginbottom University of Technology and Management and doctoral degree in forestry from Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. Prior to joining as Assistant Professor in the university, she has worked under National Medicinal Plants Board Project as a Junior Research Fellow in Uttar Bange Krishi Viswavidyalaya. The focus of her research and teaching is on Medicinal plants, Tissue culture, forestry, conservation, ethnobotany and agroforestry with national and international publications including 25 Research papers, 11 book chapters and one book. She has trained one master student. Dr. Abha Manohar K has attended more than nine national and international conferences and reviewing research articles for number of scientific journals.

Gopal Shukla, Ph.D. is currently working as Assistant Professor, Forestry in Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India with teaching and research experience of more than ten years. He holds a master and doctoral degrees in forestry from Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya. Prior to joining the university he has worked under National Agricultural Innovation Project, National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture and Science and Engineering Research Board (Department of Science and Technology, Government of India) Young Scientist project on carbon stock of different land uses. The focus of his research and development work is on agroforestry, medicinal plants, forest ecology and conservation with national and international publications including 75 research papers, 25 book chapters and eight books. He has successfully completed and continuing nine research projects on forest ecology, medicinal plants and agroforestry. He has trained more than 10 master and doctoral students in the field of forestry. Dr. Shukla has attended more than 30 national and international conferences.

Dr Saikat Gantait, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Genetics & Plant Breeding, as well as a Plant Breeder in Crop Research Unit, Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV) (State Agricultural University). Following completion of his PhD in Biotechnology from BCKV, he gained advanced research experience leading a group to conduct fruitful research during working as Research Associate in DBT (Govt. of India)-funded project, followed by working as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in University Putra Malaysia. He has guided/co-guided multiple MSc and PhD students. His 16-year research works, so far, include molecular markers, plant tissue culture, polyploidy-induction, short-term (encapsulation/synthetic seed) and long-term (cryopreservation) conservation of medicinal and ornamental plant germplasms. In addition, he is acting as Editorial Board Member in multiple journals from Springer Nature, Elsevier, and Frontiers. Dr. Gantait has reviewed more than 300 manuscripts as an ad-hoc reviewer in 60 different eminent journals from Springer, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, PLoS, Wiley, etc. Dr. Gantait was awarded with Post-Doc fellowship from MOHE, Malaysia and successfully 2-year of advanced training at University Putra Malaysia on plant tissue culture and germplasm conservation. Till date, Dr. Gantait has published 150 articles/chapters in peer-reviewed journals and books mostly as the first/senior author (with cumulative SCI Impact Factor of 275), and he has edited one book. Dr. Gantait, so far, has exhibited his research works in more than 40 national and international conferences/seminars/symposia.

A. P. Das, Ph.D. is a retired Professor of Botany, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, West Bengal, India. Dr. Das is now working as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Botany, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India. He is teaching plant taxonomy for over 45 years. Basically, a student of plant taxonomy, later on diversified his fields of work and that includes Biodiversity, Conservation, Ethnobotany, Ecology, Weed Biology, Palynology, Remote Sensing, and Aerobiology. He has published more than 240 research papers, three text books, three research based books, two edited books and some popular science books. So far, 27 students have been awarded Ph.D. under his supervision. In different times he acted as Head of the Botany Department, Director of the Centre for Life Science, Coordinator for the Department of Biotechnology, and Head of the Department of Tea Science, NBU. Dr. Das has established the East Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte Taxonomy in the year 2007 and initiated the publication of the journal Pleione. He has also developed the NBU Garden of Medicinal Plants and NBU-Herbarium.

Sumit Chakravarty, Ph.D. has a wide experience of more than 20 yearsin forestry training, research and development. He is currently working as a Professor and Head of Department of Forestry, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. He holds a master’s degree in Forestry and doctoral degree in Agronomy from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. He has conducted research on several aspects of forestry, agroforestry, medicinal plants and climate change with national and international reputed publications. This includes 120 research papers, 48 book chapters and eight books. He has successfully completed and continuing 15 research projects on forest ecology, medicinal plants and agroforestry. He has trained more than 50 master and doctoral students in the field of forestry. Dr. Chakravarty has attended more than 50 national and international conferences as a capacity of presenter and invited speaker.