12 min readJul 25, 2026 08:01 AM IST First published on: Jul 25, 2026 at 07:30 AM ISTPushpendra Rana is an Indian Forest Service officer in Himachal Pradesh who applies social science theories and analytical methods, including geospatial analysis and machine learning, to evaluate environmental policy outcomes.His work focuses on understanding how people and forests interact and using AI and machine learning to study environmental and social challenges, developing solutions to strengthen forest governance.