It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Dr M K Bhan on 26th January 2020, in Delhi.

For humans, trade is second nature and civilizations have flourished and fallen with the fate of their trade. In fact, the mutual scratching of backs is a cornerstone of many animal societies. On the other hand, deep and sustained mutualisms across species were long thought to be quirks of evolution, where radically different players managed to stick together and trade for mutual benefit.

Chandni Gurusrikar

Changing landscapes, habitat loss, fragmentation, and global climate change have been listed as the main reasons for biodiversity decline worldwide. Now, a new study from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, has added to the growing knowledge that anthropogenic activities can impact genetic connectivity or the movement among habitat patches usually resulting in mating and genetic exchange.

Recently, the campus had the pleasure of hosting two eminent French scientists. Dr Pascale Cossart of the Institut Pasteur and Dr Didier Roux of the National Academy of Technologies of France spent time at the Cluster over two days this October.

The state of bees, and work from Dr Axel Brockmann's Honey Bee lab at NCBS is covered by the Live Mint in this article. 

 In the backdrop of climate change, NCBS, a subsidiary of TIFR, has taken up a study on the carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption by evergreen forests of Western Ghats, at Nilkunda forest area in Siddapur taluk.

Chandni Gurusrikar has been awarded Sanctuary Asia's Wildlife Service Award 2019. The award recognises her work with the local communities, the forest department and various other stakeholders to protect and conserve the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and the river Cauvery. 

On 18 December, 2019, the Bangalore Life Science Cluster was visited by a delegation from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, led by  Prof.  Antoine Petit, President, CNRS.

A software engineer from Karnataka, Chandni Gurusrikar,  who was involved in conservation projects across the landscapes of Bandipur,  Nagarhole and Bhadra tiger reserves,  received the wildlife service award of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation.