Mohan Kumar

Mohan Kumar will explore India's deep-rooted forestry traditions, tracing their origins to the Vedic era (1500–800 BCE) and the structured policies that emerged in the post-Vedic period. Key elements include aspects of Vedic forestry, early timber trade from the Indus Valley Civilization, the first-century CE export of Indian teak, sissoo, and ebony — documented in the Graeco-Roman texts and archaeological finds at Berenike, and the significance of Calicut as a hub for timber trade and wooden boat-making. During the colonial era, fears of a timber famine led to large-scale plantation forestry under the “empire forestry” policies, which prioritized commercial timber production and these policies largely persisted post-independence, shaping India’s modern forestry landscape, though greater emphasis on social and participatory aspects including agroforestry emerged later.

Speaker Biography

Mohan Kumar - Chairman of the Research Council, Kerala Forest Research Institute

Professor Mohan Kumar is a leading researcher in agroforestry and agroecology. He served as the vice-chancellor of Arunachal University of Studies in Namsai, India until early 2023 and has since worked as a freelance consultant. Over his distinguished career, he has held key positions, including assistant director general (agronomy, agroforestry & climate change) at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi; dean and professor at the School of Ecology and Environment Studies, Nalanda University, Rajgir; and associate dean (forestry) at Kerala Agricultural University.

A Ph.D. graduate from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, Professor Kumar has been a visiting professor at several prestigious international institutions. These include scholar in residence at the University of Missouri, USA; CNRS visiting professor at the University of Toulouse, France; Erasmus Mundus visiting professor at the University of Wales, Bangor, UK; IR3S visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan; Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florida, USA; JSPS visiting professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan; USAID visiting faculty at Utah State University, USA, and as visiting professor at multiple Indonesian universities.

Currently, Dr. Kumar serves as: the chairman of the research souncil of the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, India, associate editor of Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (Frontiers) and Agroforestry Systems (Springer), and a courtesy professor at the University of Florida, USA. He previously served as a member of the executive council of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India, a member of the State Environment Impact Assessment Committee of Arunachal Pradesh (2021-2024), a member of the Council of the National Academy of Sciences (India; 2020-2022) and a lead author of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for the Regional Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for Asia and the Pacific (2015 –2018).

Recommended Readings

Bennett, B.M. 2014. The origins of timber plantations in India. Agricultural History Review, 62(1), 98-118.

Kumar, B.M. 2008.  Forestry in ancient India: some evidence on productive and protective aspects.  Asian Agri-History, 12(4): 299–306.

Nair, P.K.R., Kumar, B.M., and Nair, V.D. 2021. An Introduction to Agroforestry: Four Decades of Scientific Developments, 2nd Edition, Springer-Nature, 666p.

Roy, A., Fleischman, F. 2022. The evolution of forest restoration in India: The journey from pre-colonial to India's 75th year of Independence. Land Degradation and Development, 33(10), 1527-1540. 

Sidebotham, S.E. 2011. Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. Berkeley, CA: California World History Library, 18, University of California Press.