Dr. Soumya Bandopadhyay

Director

Dr. S. Bandyopadhyay received Ph. D. degree in Soil Physics from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi in 1995. During his PhD., he worked on influence of surface roughness and agricultural crops on retrieval of soil moisture using microwave data. He joined Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 1995 and was associated with studies on water movement in vadose zone under agricultural crops.

Subsequently, he joined Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1998. He has worked with crop simulation model ORYZA in rice agro-ecosystems and model STICS under dryland agriculture situation. He had worked with Indian Institute of Science for development of algorithms and advanced techniques for estimating soil moisture and crop parameters using C and L band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. He has contributed significantly in national projects:

  • National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA)
  • Mangrove community zonation and biophysical characterization for coast of West Bengal using Multispectral and SAR data
  • Desertification and Land Degradation Monitoring and Assessment Project
  • Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development : Watershed development project

Some of his major research studies include:

  • Flood Inundation Mapping and Site Suitability of Flood Shelters
  • Study of bio-physical attributes of mangrove forests using airborne hyperspectral data
  • Analysis of urban heat islands in Kolkata metropolitan region using Satellite data
  • Modelling & upscaling of Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) of mangroves
  • Photosynthetic stress detection through phase-stabilized Fourier Transform Spectrometers

Before joining MNCFC, Dr. Bandyopadhyay served ISRO in various capacities in last 26 years and was posted as Associate Director, EDPO, ISRO HQ. He was Head (Applications) during 2018-2020 at Regional Centre-East, Kolkata. He represented ISRO in the national committees of Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Ministry of Water Resources and Bureau of Indian Standards. He was associated in international cooperation with the global space agencies. He is life member of National Scientific Societies and reviews articles for International peer reviewed Journals. His research interest includes diversified field of agriculture, water resources, environment and climate change. He has published over 35 research papers in peered reviewed national and International Journals.

Currently, as the Director of the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC), Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, leading a team of scientists and researchers for implementation of operational National level Agricultural Programmes on Crop Production Forecasting (FASAL), Drought Assessment and monitoring (NADAMS),Technology support to Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) etc.

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