Madhab Chandra Dash (born 1939 in Puri, Odisha) is an Indian ecologist and environmental biologist.
[1][5][6] His thesis was titled "Ecology of enchytraeidae (Oligochaeta) in Rocky Mountain forest soils (Kananaskis region, Alberta, Canada)".
[1] Dash has done pioneering work in vermitechnology, soil ecology, conservation of sea turtles, population biology, quantitative ecology, energetics of soil oligochaetes, larval energetics of amphibia, environmental impact assessment (EIA), sustainable development, environmental pollution and its mitigation.
[1][8] His work on vermitechnology was one of the earliest in India during the late 1970s[9] and he produced one of the early studies on turtle migration and breeding on the coast of Orissa (Gahirmatha).
[1][10] He co-authored one of the earliest book on turtle migrations and population studies to the east coast of India, Gahirmatha in Orissa in 1990.
[1] Dash was a former Member, National Expert Committee for EIA & EMP of Mining Projects (1995–1997 – 3 years), of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India, New Delhi.
[1] From 2002 until 2005, he was the Chairman of the National Steering Committee (which consisted of ten high level expert members) for Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility programmes sponsored by TSBF, Nairobi, UNEP, MoEF, (Govt.
of India), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi on "Conservation and Sustainable Management for Below Ground Bio-diversity" operating at multiple centers and also contributed to the second phase of the programme from 2007 until 2009.
[1] Dash was the Chairman, Expert Committee (that consisted of 11 members) for Environmental clearance to the Thermal Power Plants set up by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF notification No.
[1] He was the Chairman of the visiting team of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (UGC), Bangalore to Colleges and Universities – from 2002 to 2007.
He has led over 15 major research projects in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, EIA & EMP etc.
Dash has also consulted widely by the industry especially on environment matters (EIA, EMP, Environmental Law).
[1] Dash has published more than 200 peer reviewed scientific papers and authored more than 17 books and numerous book chapters for leading publishers across the world such as Cambridge University Press UK, Academic Press USA, Macmillan India and Tata McGraw Hill, India.