Assessment of the economic and ecological impacts of IAS is crucial in raising awareness on the issue and draw support to prevent new incursions and develop environmentally benign and cost-effective management techniques. There have been several studies to identify IAS in India although none of these can be considered to be comprehensive in any sense. However, attempts to quantify the impacts due to IAS have been rare even in cases where the perceived impacts are significant. Regional cooperation (in terms of exchange of information/​sharing of resources) is highly warranted to prevent new invasions and combat the ill effects of IAS. It is hoped that by 2020, we would be able to identify all the IAS and their pathways in India and develop strategies to manage them as provided in the National Biodiversity Target 4. 

This workshop is being held at the Indian Statistical Institute as a part of the celebrations of the 125^th Birth Anniversary of Professor P. C. Mahalanobis, the founder of this Institute. The workshop is expected to provide an excellent platform for experts and practitioners to join and share outcomes of their research and discuss novel ideas on management of IAS. Towards this end, this workshop will feature practical sessions on distribution mapping and application of statistical approaches in visualizing and understanding invasive species data. Overall, it is hoped that the outcomes of this workshop may add richly to our efforts in understanding the fundamental principles of invasion ecology and implementing management strategies as well.

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