Rajeev Kumar Tiwari, an associate professor at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy in northern India, is one of 30 representatives of the Indian Forest Ministry spending the next two weeks at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies studying in a mid-career training program. He and his colleagues are confronting an important problem: How to balance the economic growth affecting a population of 1.3 billion with protecting unique and ancient ecosystems?

“Forestry science is still in its nascent stage in India,” Kumar Tiwari said. “We are trying to learn from the experience of Yale, considered to have the best forestry school in the world.”

This training program, which is in its second year and has welcomed 150 Indian foresters to date, is part of an increase in collaboration between Yale and Indian institutions.

This program is one of three related to India taking place at Yale this month. University President Richard Levin and other Yale administrators are hosting 25 leaders of Indian universities to discuss institutional leadership and education at Yale, and 10 leaders from Indian NGOs came to the School of Management to discuss social enterprise projects with students. All three are part of the University’s expanding efforts to strengthen ties to Indian educational, governmental and business institutions, which administrators have termed the Yale-India Initiative.

“Like China, India is a rising power with a rich source of talent and prospective students that may come to Yale,” Levin said. “I think it’s important to reach out to both those countries and develop a strong reputation for Yale in both of those areas.”