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Sushil Saigal Sushil works on issues related to natural resource management, with a particular focus on forestry in India. His specific interests include community forestry, farm and agro forestry, small forestry enterprises, forest certification, and payments for environmental services. He has over 12 years of work experience in the Indian forestry sector. He started his career at Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD), where he coordinated a national network on Joint Forest Management (JFM). During this period, he also worked on several field projects in collaboration with grassroots voluntary agencies. He subsequently joined Ecotech Services (ETS), where he coordinated a research project on the role of private sector in Indian forestry. At Winrock, he coordinated Resource Unit for Participatory Forestry (RUPFOR) and worked closely with Ministry of Environment and Forests before taking over as the Program Manager of NRM Division in 2004.
Sushil is the principal author of the book The New Foresters (IIED, 2002) that examines the role of private sector in Indian forestry and co-editor of another book Root to Canopy (CFA & Winrock, 2004) that analyses the experience of the first decade of JFM in India. Sushil was educated at Cambridge (MPhil Environment & Development), Oxford (MSc Forestry), IIFM (MBA), and Delhi (BSc Zoology). He has also attended certificate programmes at UC Berkeley and East-West Center. He is currently on study leave and pursuing PhD in Political Ecology at Cambridge.
Brij Mohan Singh Rathore (Senior Advisor) is an officer of the Indian Forest Service belonging to the Madhya Pradesh cadre. Till recently he was the Member Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Biodiversity Board, where he was engaged with multi-stakeholders processes for conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of use of biodiversity and associated knowledge. As Conservator, Seoni, he continued his interest in community led conservation approaches through participatory silviculture. He has worked as State Program Director on Chhattisgarh – Jharkhand tribal development program. At Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun (1994-1999), he was engaged in designing and implementing training programs in the area of integrated conservation and development for PA managers, field staff, NGOs and local communities. He has worked with FAO, UNDP, IFAD and WB in the field of capacity building for NRM and biodiversity conservation, both within and outside the country. He has been instrumental in initiating joint forest management in the state of Madhya Pradesh. A gold medalist in masters ( Botany) from Agra University, he is recipient of State Governments Gold medal as well as the national award "Indira Priyadarshini Vriksh Mitra Award", for excellence in community led forest management.
Forest Management Group Sunandan Tiwari (Group Coordinator, Forest Management Group, and Senior Program Officer) is an Ecologist by training with 13 years of experience of project management and implementation in the development sector. He has worked in wide array of sectors – forestry, adaptation to climate change, water resources (rural and urban), sanitation, renewable energy, environmental services – at various levels that include direct interactions with local communities, capacity building of local institutions, field based as well as desk based research, dialogues with decision makers in the government as well with policy makers. All this work has been focussed on improving the lives and livelihoods of local communities, especially the marginalised and the ultra poor, and the environments within which they live. It has covered technical aspects, institutional aspects, governance issues, resource management and policy issues. He has worked both as a team member and has led a number of projects on the natural resource management, adaptation to climate change, and renewable energy sectors.
This cross-sectoral work has enabled him to develop a holistic understanding of the development sector and to better appreciate the interconnectedness between systems and local communities. Sunandan has also worked very closely with a wide variety of stakeholders – from local communities in different parts of India, Nepal and Vietnam, to government officials at various levels, policy makers, national as well as international researchers and research institutions, a number of donor agencies – bi-lateral, multi-lateral, foundations, corporate agencies, and government - and other practitioners such as grassroots NGOs. These social interactions and opportunities for joint work have helped in him developing a thorough understanding of the processes and procedures of working with the entire range of stakeholders in the development sector. Sunandan has extensive experience of working on M&E approaches and techniques. Mr. Tiwari has undertaken a detailed impact and outcome analysis of a number of developmental programs ranging across the rural development and energy sectors. This involved establishing M&E systems and undertaking extensive baseline and monitoring-based data collection across social – with a focus on livelihood development, institutional, environmental, and economic parameters.
Biodiversity Group Sudipto Chatterjee (Group Coordinator, Biodiversity Group, and Senior Program Officer) is an M.Phil in Ecology from School of Environmental Sciences, Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi. He undertook the course on Plant Conservation Techniques at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew and was trained on Project Cycle management by WWF. Prior to joining WII, he was working as Senior Coordinator Forests Conservation Programme of WWF-India. Assessment of management effectiveness of Protected Areas in Eastern Himalaya and South Western Ghats, Forest Landscape Restoration in Darjeeling Hills, Community Forestry in Western Arunachal Pradesh, Conservation of Rhododendrons in Western Arunachal Pradesh, certification of the wood carving industry and preparation of a conservation action plan for the South Western Ghats landscape, were some of the major initiatives in which Sudipto was involved with. He also authored a paper for the World Bank on biodiversity significance of the North Eastern Region and prepared a strategy paper for biodiversity conservation in Tripura for the Japan Bank for International Co-operation and State Forest Department, Government of Tripura. ‘Ranthambhor revisited’, ‘Forests Fires in India-Lessons from case studies’, ‘Natural Resources Management of the Apatanis’, ‘Relevance of forest certification to wood carving industry of India’ are some of the publications. In april 2009 he received the Whitley Associate Award 2009 for conservation of Rhododendrons in Eastern Himalaya.
Monalisa Sen (Program Officer) is a post graduate in Environmental Biology from University of Delhi and is presently pursuing her PhD in Environmental Studies from the same University. Apart from her PhD thesis on ‘ Avifauna and Community Dynamics in the Aravallis’, she has experience of working in the field of Restoration Ecology, particularly in Asola-Bhatti wildlife sanctuary, Yamuna and Aravalli Biodiversity parks. Her major work responsibilities included extensive field ecological surveys of the Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan regions of the Aravallis; collection and multiplication of native flora of Aravallis; micro-planning of the plantations to be carried out; isolation and mass multiplication of nitrogen fixing bacteria, and helping in the organization of educational camps for school children. She has also worked on the Flora of Delhi. Prior to joining WII, she has been associated as a Consultant with IUCN- India.
Jayahari KM (Program Officer) has more than seven years experience in working in the field of Biodiversity Conservation. He has done his PhD on the “Ecology and behaviour of small mammals in the Western Ghats of Kerala, Southern India, with special reference to rodents”, from FRI University, Dehra Dun. He began his career as a Research Fellow in the Wildlife Division of Kerala Forest Research institute, Peechi, Kerala. He also played a key role in the finalization of the State Biodiversity Action Plan (SBSAP) for Kerala, 2005. Before joining WII, he was working as a Project Officer in the Southern Western Ghats Landscape Programme of WWF-India. His major responsibilities were identification of the conservation issues of the Southern Western Ghats, and networking with State Forest Departments, different forest dependent communities, NGOs, research organizations and other conservation stakeholders.
Adaptation Group
Ritu Bharadwaj (Group Coordinator, Adaptation Group, and Senior Program Officer) has about eight years of extensive experience in the field of Forestry, Environment and Climate Change. She has previously worked at senior level with various programmes and projects of Ministry of Rural Development, Environment and Forests, Renewable Energy, Human Resource Development (India), DFID, UN Agencies and other international donors.
While working with these projects and programmes she has gained extensive experience of implementation, action research, policy analysis and advocacy addressing the structural causes of poverty & livelihood insecurity, particularly addressing the factors which deny poor people access to water and environmental services. While working for the DFID supported Livelihoods project in Madhya Pradesh she has led interventions for creating sustainable livelihoods in tribal areas of the State by enhancing productivity of local resources like land, water and forest.
As the Lead, she has also developed the planning and monitoring framework for Social Protection and Gender mainstreaming in the project. She was responsible for coordination and providing strategic and policy inputs to the Watershed Management Mission, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), State Biofuel Mission, Mid Day Meal Scheme & Below Poverty Line Survey. She has also led the UNDP’s PPCP project in the state. She has developed the guideline for implementation of watershed using NREGS funds and coordinated the implementation of large community led water conservation & advocacy campaigns.
Leading large teams of professionals for implementation of various programmes & projects she has developed communication material to increase the outreach of the programme and provide guidance to the community over various technical issues. She was the part of the editorial team for bringing out periodic newsletter in MPRLP. She has published a number of papers and reports on watershed, forestry and environmental issues. She has an MBA degree in Forestry Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management and is also perusing her PhD. from Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun.
Chetan Agarwal (Senior Program Officer) has worked to sustain forests, in the Western Himalayas, nationally, and elsewhere in Asia. His interests include institutional, market and regulatory analysis for sustainable production of forest produce and ecosystem services, community ownership, and the application of tools such as certification, incentive mechanisms, GIS and Remote Sensing for the same. Chetan has a masters in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), and a masters in public affairs (environmental policy) from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), Indiana University, Bloomington. Sharmistha Bose (Program Officer) is a sociologist by training and has been working in the Natural Resource Management sector for the past seven years. She has worked extensively on participatory forestry, adaptation and water issues, specializing in-- NTFP enterprises, federations, good forest governance, adaptation of vulnerable communities and water and sanitation. She has led projects from bilateral and other donors such as DFID, Ford Foundation and World Bank. Her interests are in the fields of gender and equity issues governing marginalized communities, policy, institutional and social aspects of natural resource governance, qualitative and sociological analysis of development issues such as access to information, poverty alleviation, health and sanitation, livelihood and rural-urban conflicts. Over the years she has gained proficiency in qualitative research methods, data collection and has extensively carried out field studies in various states in India. She has many publications to her credit. Mohammad Aatish Khan (Program Associate) holds his post graduation degree from IIFM, Bhopal with specialization in Environmental & Livelihood management. He has done Electronics & Communication engineering in his graduation with honours. He is having sound practical experience of quantitative methodologies and assessment frameworks in the field of Climate Change Adaptation and Rural development. During the course of his professional career, Aatish has undertaken projects of many international organizations such as the World Bank, DFID, the ILO, USAID, UNICEF etc. He is a recipient of the Budding Researcher’s Award-2009 at IIFM, for research paper on rural waste management and benchmarking. Sunpreet Kaur (Program Associate) is a silver-medallist in from IIFM, Bhopal with major specialization in Environmental Management and minor specialization in Conservation and Livelihood management. Prior joining WII, she worked with UNIDO and MoEF on the development of India’s National Implementation Plan under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and was associated with various organisations such as NEERI, NIIST, CPCB, CPRI. She had also undertaken a research study at IIFM, Bhopal on Analysing the financial risks and opportunities affecting livelihoods, due to global climate change.
She has undergone trainings at UNDP, CPRI, MPRLP, EPCO, M.P. Urja Vikas Nigam, Maharashtra Forest Department, and Madhya Pradesh Forest Department. She is a recipient of the IIFM’s Budding Researcher’s Award-2009 for the research paper on “The Best Practice approach to Rural Household Solid Waste Management through Benchmarking”.
Arvind Kumar Limje (Program Associate) is a Mechanical Engineer from NIT Raipur and has done his M. Tech. in Energy Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay. Prior to Winrock, Arvind has worked with Anama Energies Pvt. Ltd. Pune ( AEPL) as Asst. Manager, Projects & Planning in Non-conventional energy department where he was involved in the planning of the activities, designing the system and implantation of the projects based on renewable energy.
Sanyogita Rawat (Associate – Program Support) is a graduate from University of Delhi and holds a PGD in Office Management from YMCA, Delhi. At WII, she is currently assisting the Natural Resources Management program in all its programmatic activities.
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