Pratyush Dhungana

M.S. in Forest Biomterics

2024 - Present

College of Forest Resources, Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS, USA

Project: “Machine Learning Approaches to Improve Small Domain Biomass Estimates”

Class Projects:

• Used standard Fay-Herriot Model to enhance the county level above ground forest biomass estimates for the states of Mississippi and Minnesota.
• Designed a basic geodatabase for the Oktibbeha county of Mississippi.
• Created a tool for selecting the water sources within the given radius from the centre of Mississippi State University.

BS in Forestry

2017 - 2022

Institute of Forestry, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Thesis: “Night Echoes in Urban Landscape: Activity and Guild of Bats in Different Habitat Types”

Class Projects:

• Prepared of Community Forest Operation Plan of Sundarban Community Forest, Kapilvastu.
• Performed Watershed Prioritization of Kaligandaki Watershed
• Developed a local volume table of trees present in Institute of Forestry Pokhara.
• Prepared a change detection map of Tandi, Chitwan.

Lead Researcher

• Night Echoes in Urban Landscape: Activity and Guild of Bats in Different Habitat Types —Hypothesis development, Research Design, Data collection using echometer touch-2 pro, Data Analysis using kaleidoscope, raven pro, SPSS and MS Excel, and Report writing.

Researcher

• "Bat diversity in the Banpale forest, Pokhara, Nepal during spring season" — Data collection using mist-netting of bats and Analysis. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6263.13.6.18479-18489

Research Assistant

• "Exploring the roosting and nesting habitats of Asian Barred Owlet (Glaucidium cuculoides)" in Raghuganga Rural Municipality", —Data collection (Bio-physical data with the help of Vortex, Binoculars, GPS and Diameter Tape) and dissemination.
• "Beneficial or harmful: How do local stakeholders perceive bats and Caves in mid-hills of Nepal?", — Social data collection using household questionnaire survey and open-ended interview.
• "Assessment of Kulekhani watershed's health based on water quality", — Research Design and Data analysis using ArcMap.

Research Field Assistant

• "Bats and Caves: Seasonal Monitoring and Conservation in Kaligandaki Canyon, Nepal", — Field data collection (micro-climatic and acoustic data collection), organized a conservation seminar for cave protection comittee.
• "Acoustic Survey and Monitoring to Lay the Foundation for Conservation of the Endemic Csorba’s Mouse Eared Bat (Myotis csorbai) in Nepal," — Field data collection (microclimatic and acoustic data collection).
• Field Expert: "Bats, trees and humans: Fruit-eating bat survey in Chepang communities of Kalika Municipality, Chitwan", —Acoustic data collection using song-meter for recording of echolocation pulses in 11 different survey stations.
• Field Technician: Preparation of community forest operation plan for 7 community forests; NTFP inventory in Myagdi District: A five-year plan under Division Forest Office, Myagdi.

Graduate Research Assisstant

January 2024 - Present

Forest Biometrics Lab, Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University

• Prepared study area maps for two differnt projects.
• Performed high to coarse resolution satellite and optical data acquisition, cleaning and analysis for the small area estimation project.

Research Assisstant

September 2023 - November 2023

NepAI Applied Mathematics and Informatics Institute for Research

Intern

February 2022- June 2022

Division Forest Office, Myagdi

• Conducted one month-long active acoustic monitoring of the activity of bats in different habitats of bats using echohmeter.
• Monitored different forest management activities within the community forests of Myagdi district.
• Performed high-resolution satellite image acquisition and land cover classification using ArcGIS.
• Sensitized more than 200 high school students about the Forest Fire: Causes and Mitigation Measures.
• Applied different nursery improvement techniques, and updated Division and Subdivision office data.
• Explored different caves and conducted acoustic monitoring of Bats.
• Prepared map of several community forests and drafted different official documents, prepared Presentation slides for workshops and seminars.
• Collected socio-demographic data using household questionnaire survey for different community forest operational plan preparation.
• Collected NTFP inventory data from high mountains.
• Consulted and organized different local and regional stakeholders of DFO.

Co-ordinator

May 2021 - May 2022

Bat Friends Pokhara, IOF

• Led a team of 9 people for bat research and monitoring.
• Carried out mist-netting and active acoustic monitoring of Bats.
• Trained Forestry Undergraduates about Bat Handling, Identification along with Caves and Bats Monitoring during 26th National Wildlife Week.
• Performed Acoustic Analysis and Report Writing.
• Organized Various Conservation Outreach Programs.

Training and Certification

• Species Distribution Modeling with Remote Sensing, Webinar by NASA ARSET.
• Satellite Observations and Tools for Fire Risk, Detection, and Analysis, Webinar by NASA ARSET.
• Fundamentals of GIS by UC Davis on Coursera.
• Wildlife Research Techniques Training, 2020 for 19 days by Friends of Nature-FON, Nepal.
• Python Basics by Michigan State University on Coursera.
• Spatial Data Science: The New Frontier in Analytics – A MOOC by ESRI.
• Going Places with Spatial Analysis —A MOOC by ESRI