Sidharth Kaul

Dr Sidharth Kaul (born September 13, 1952) is a scientist in the field of Limnology, conservation and management of aquatic ecosystems. He is currently working as an Advisor in the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Central Govt, New Delhi India.
Early life and education
Dr. Kaul was born in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh and spent his high school years in Shimla, his ancestral hometown. He belongs to a distinguished family where his father, Shri S.L.Kaul is a retired educationalist and mathematician and mother, Shrimati Raj Kaul, a homemaker. His sister, Dr Neena Shandil is a renowned Anaesthetist in Shimla and his brother Dr. Sumedh Kaul, a Gynecologist in the valleys of Kullu, HP.
Dr. Kaul completed his Bachelors of Science and Masters of science from Department of Botany, Kashmir University, Srinagar. His interest towards ecosystems, especially aquatic, kept rising and motivated him to pursue his Doctorate of Philosophy(PhD)from the Department of Biosciences, Himachal University. On the non-academic side, he has always been a contemporary poet and writer and has won numerous laurels for his school and colleges. He was a public orator and actively participated in debates, extempores and dramatics.
Research
During his BSc., Dr. Kaul was selected as a Junior Research fellow for a project sponsored by in the field Biogeochemical cycling. He successfully completed his project and wished to continue further education. He then worked as a senior research fellow for the Conservation and Management of Dal Lake and Neelnag Lake in Kashmir. These projects inspired him to continue delving deeper into this field until a breakthrough. He completed his PhD with his thesis on "Ecosystem Analysis and Biogeochemical cycling on Kashmir Wetlands and Dal Lake". This research was instrumental in the publication of number of scientific papers. This research triggered the investigation of nutrient dynamics of Emergent Macrophytes. A model was also prepared for nutrient dynamics in typical wetlands of Kashmir. As a recognition to his contribution,he was nominated for a Post-graduate Diploma in Environmental Management and Protection by UNESCO (Germany) (1981-82) He worked at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany for various environmental management issues.
Dr. Kaul was invited as an academic guest to the Geobotanical Institute, ETH, Zurich to work on conservation of Swiss wetlands. He worked diligently for one year on numerous wetlands of Switzerland and achieved significant results to save the peatlands from nutrient influxes.
He joined Govt. of India in 1984 that gave him a platform to participate in a number of national as well as international conferences. He was instrumental in collection, retrieval and dissemination of information on various aspects of environment, particularly wetlands, mangroves, corals, biosphere reserves, national heritage sites, SACON, environment education, national lake conservation plan, etc. He organized many training programmes for senior bureaucrats and industrial managers on environmental aspects at Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad thrice a year and brought out number of proceedings in association with Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad. He created various skeleton management action plans for wetlands/mangroves/corals for the convenience of State Governments. Dr. Kaul also constituted Steering Committees in different States for conservation of wetlands, mangroves and corals and visited number sites to advise State Governments. in India on various environmental issues and attended various State Steering Committee meetings in different States. He was nominated as an Indian expert for the UNESCO Advisory Committee on Biosphere Reserves. He was also a member of the International Lake Environmental Committee (ILEC) Foundation for three years and brought out number of books on survey of world lakes.
He actively participated in the Scientific Management Committee for Sixth World Lake Conference held in Japan and was requested chair one of the technical sessions. He was nominated as a member on Wetlands International Governing Board based in Netherlands & was a focal point for activities pertaining to Ramsar Convention on Wetlands to represent India.
Dr. Kaul has presented various papers at national and international levels and was made Chairman of Technical Research Committee on Loktak Lake where ICEF funded project was executed in collaboration with Wetlands International, South Asia.
Personal life
In 1982 Dr. Kaul married Rajni Kaul who is also a scientist and is currently working as a Deputy Director General at the Indian Council of Medical Research. They have a prosperous family with two children, a daughter, Nimisha Kaul and a son Neelaksh Kaul. Dr. Kaul currently resides with his family in New Delhi.

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