Sub-themes 

Land and Water- Nature of land use and land cover, changes over space and time, and processes that produce these patterns and changes. Issues relevant to rural physical and social infrastructure, agriculture, land reforms, rural industrialization, provisioning of credit, appropriate research and knowledge generation and their extensions to the field, and appropriate public policies, schemes and programmes with respect to all these areas, the role of water in alleviating poverty and enhancing food security, drinking water supply, water quality, health impacts, wastewater reuse, multiple use systems, and other relevant topics.

Integrated soil and fertility management- Soil Biology, Pedology, Soil Chemistry, Soil Physics, Soil Ecology, Plant-Soil Interactions, Hydropedology, Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition, Agricultural Soil Science, Mineral Nutrition & Sustainable Management, Soil Erosion and its Control, Soil Conservation models (tools and techniques), Fundamental and applied aspects of Soil Ecology

Climate change- causes, eco-systematic impacts, and its human impacts, and technological, policy, strategic, and social responses to climate change.

Forestry- Forest economics, education and communication, entomology and pathology, fire, forest ecology, geospatial technologies, history, international forestry, measurements, policy, recreation, silviculture, social sciences, soils and hydrology, urban and community forestry, utilization and engineering, and wildlife management.

Mining and Geology - Petroleum Geology, Geomorphology, Gravity & Magnetic, Geo-informatics Geosciences including Geo-engineering, Hydrogeology, and Sequence Stratigraphy, involving theoretical and practical perspectives

Biodiversity and conservation- Anthropology (Physical/Biological, Social/Cultural), Sociology, Geography, Life Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Earth Sciences, Botany, Agricultural Sciences, Zoology, Genetics, Biology, Medical Sciences, Demography, Veterinary Sciences, Evolution and Population Genetics.