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CESC Trustees

Name of Trustees

Gender

Qualification

Chandanathil P. Geevan

Male

M.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Arun Mani Dixit

Male

M.Sc., Ph.D.

Meera Velayudhan

Female

M.A., Ph.D

Chandra Shekar Silori

Male

M.Sc. Ph.D.

Subhash Mali

Male

M.Sc. Ph.D.
Dr Geevan has a doctorate in environmental sciences that employed mathematical modelling and computer simulation of estuarine ecosystem. He has more than 30 years of experience by way of research and consulting in interdisciplinary studies covering environment, ecological-economics, and disaster management. He has worked as scientist at senior levels in various research institutions and in individual capacity as a consultant/ independent researcher. As a senior consultant, he has been associated with several multi-disciplinary studies on ecological economics linking ecological systems, dynamics of resource use and economic activity.
He has worked as an independent consultant with government and non-government agencies with central and state governments. As a senior consultant, he has been associated with the preparation of the National Disaster Management Plan for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Govt. of India and in carrying out major disaster management related studies for the UNDP, India office.
He was the lead consultant for several Hazard, Risk, Vulnerability Assessment studies in Gujarat, such as for the cyclone risk mitigation project. He has many peer-reviewed publications in reputed national and international journals.
Chandanathil P. Geevan​
Arun Mani Dixit
Dr Arun M Dixit is an ecologist by training and holds a Ph. D in wetland ecology. He has 35 years of experience in research, management and conservation of biodiversity in different parts of the country. He received his post-doctoral training at Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun) and served for ten years as Scientist in Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology (Bhuj). His current area of work includes ecology, mapping and valuation of ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation and associated livelihoods.
He was engaged in many biodiversity surveys and conservation planning at different scales– state, district and landscape in different geographies of country and covered different terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems including forest, wetland, grasslands, coral reefs etc. He was also part of many socio-economic surveys and thus well versed with tools and methods. He has more than 25 peer-reviewed publications in reputed national and international journals.
He was a nominated member of Gujarat Biodiversity Bord. He is member of IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Area (WCPA). He worked with the World Bank, ADB, JICA and KfW as consultants in different projects across the country.
Dr. Meera Velayudhan has been involved in gender studies from its inception in India since early 1980s with initial works in history. Her doctoral research, focused on gender, caste, social reform, nationalism and popular movements in Kerala and an earlier study, the coir workers’ struggles in Kerala, are among the early labour studies pointing to the complexities of studying gendered identities in social movements in a context where structural changes were taking place in the industry. The focus of her research since then has been on strategies of organization of women in varied contexts, historical and contemporary. Meera has also been part of designing and conducting courses, attempting more engaging methods of conducting gender studies and participated in international, including UN advocacy courses on gender at Rutgers (USA).
She perceives her strength in her ability to draw upon and evolve theoretical frameworks based on field surveys/ collection of oral narratives to explore the linkages between individual experience and macro processes and its policy implications.
Meera also draws from her own social legacy. Coming from a family which had actively participated in the debate on citizenship, social policy and affirmative action in the 1930s and 40s and whose lives traversed several modernities – anti-caste, social reform, state people’s movement, nationalist movements. Meera has a vast body of publications – English, Malayalam, Hindi. She is a Policy Analyst and the former President of Indian Association for Womens Studies (IAWS).
Meera Velayudhan
Chandra Shekhar Silori
Dr. Silori is deputy executive director of Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC), based in Bangkok. He has more than 25 years’ experience in South and Southeast Asia developing policy and applying research for participatory forest management, documenting traditional knowledge systems, conserving biodiversity, improving the livelihoods of rural people, mainstreaming gender in forest management and conservation, and furthering climate change mitigation and adaptation.
He currently supervises RECOFTC activities in seven countries in South and South-east Asia: Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam. Chandra is a strong proponent of community forestry and innovative capacity development models for participatory forest management and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Dr. Silori has published more than 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He has authored and co-authored numerous training manuals, guidelines and books on community forestry, biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation and gender mainstreaming in the forestry sector. Chandra has a PhD in wildlife science.
Dr. Subhash has a Ph.D. on wildlife science and worked on ecology of endangered Malabar Giant Squirrel in Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary. He worked extensively on species recovery program of threatened medicinal plants and joint forest management in many parts of Gujarat and other states. He is recognized as Ph.D. Guide with Pune University and guided many students in the topics of conservation biology and assessment of environmental impacts of developmental projects. He has more than 30 years of experience working with Civil Society Organizations and Private Sector Companies, on the broad areas of natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, sustainable mining and renewable energy.
He contributed a lot in the conservation of flora and fauna, and other green initiatives for various industrial sectors such as mining, power, river valley projects. He authored and co-authored several papers in the areas of conservation biology and joint forest management in peer reviewed journals.
Till recently, as Head, Environment Division, Dr. Subhash worked on environmental issues related to iron ore mining of JSW Steel in Bellari, Karnataka. At present, however, Dr. Subhash is working as Head, Forests and Environment matters with Wind World Wind Farm Hindustan Ltd.
Subhash Mali

Advisor

Somnath Bandyopadhyay
Dr Somnath combines his core expertise in ecological sciences with broad-based knowledge of environmental economics and experience in public policy. From a basic degree in biological sciences, he broadened his horizons progressively to cover Marine Sciences (MSc from Calcutta University) and Environmental Sciences (MPhil and PhD from JNU, New Delhi in 1994). Over the next two decades, he worked in the areas of public policy and development actions with both state agencies and international civil society organisations. He led the production of the first State Environment Action Plan, with support from the World Bank in 2003.
He worked on chronic poverty, promoted civil society innovations, and developed a Multi-Input Area Development for Bihar, before focusing on water issues through his stints at the National Ganga River Basin Authority and the Safe Water Network. During this period, he also obtained professional certification in Environmental Economics and Policy Analysis from the Harvard Institute fo.r International Development, Harvard University, USA in 1999 and Market Systems Development at the Springfield Centre, UK in 2008.
As an Associate Professor at the Nalanda University, between 2014 and 2022, Dr Bandyopadhyay was engaged in curriculum development for a unique interdisciplinary Masters’ program in Ecology and Environment Studies. His teaching and research focus on the interface of environment and development, particularly in the context of water resources, particularly in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services, agricultural productivity and sustainable intensification. He is also on several committees of the Bihar State Government for wildlife and wetland conservation.

Resource Persons

Dr. Satyasiba holds M.A in Economics (specialization in Environmental Economics) from Berhampur University, Odisha. He received Ph.D. in Economics from Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru. He was a recipient of ICSSR Fellowship through Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. After completing his PhD., he gets associated with ISEC and PES University (Bangaluru) in their various research and teaching assignments. He taught Ecological and Environmental Economics, Development Economics and Rural and Agriculture Economics.
His research interests cover a wide range of issues relating to sustainability of village institutions, ecological and environmental economic aspects of wetlands, fishery, forestry and ground water.
Apart from these issues he has been associated with studies on climate change and agricultural vulnerability. He has published more than 25 research papers in peer reviewed journals, edited volumes and as working papers.
Satyasiba Bedamatta
Abhishek Mani Tripathi
Dr. Abhishek is a researcher having Ph.D. degree in Forest Ecology and Landscape Engineering from Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic. During his PhD, he studied life cycle of fast-growing trees under agroforestry systems along with precision agriculture where he studied crops like barley, wheat, maize and rapeseed and also studied plant response to future climate from laboratory to field level.
His interest on using precision technology in environmentally sustainable food production systems make him into an entrepreneur.
He is well versed in eco-physiological techniques. He has more than 15 years of working experience on fields of agroecology, agroforestry, climate change (carbon farming, emission and off-setting), forestry and sustainability. He has participated in several international projects on global climate change and sustainability in Asia, Europe and North America. He has published more than 30 research papers in reputed journals.
Dr. Lalit Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Economics, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedekar College, Delhi University since 1998. His research and teaching area of interest includes industrial and environmental economics, economic policies and development. His Ph.D. is on effects of climate change on selected agricultural crops in India, from Delhi University. His research interest includes valuation of ecosystem services and environmental resource accounting, and effects of climate change on biodiversity and agriculture.
He was also associated with Green Accounting and TEEB-India projects. He has published many articles in leading journals and books on issues relating to economics of environment and ecology.
Lalit Kumar
Resource Persons
Pankaj Joshi
Dr Pankaj Joshi is a botanist and has more than 20 years of work experience in arid landscape of Kachchh and other parts of Gujarat. His doctoral work explores traditional knowledge of medicinal plant use in Kachchh district. He was members of different commissions of IUCN including the WCPA, CEESP and CEM.
His major work includes participatory research and conservation and management of threatened biodiversity and other natural resources with local communities. He initiated many programs around ecology and livelihoods with pastoral communities in Kachchh. He also worked very closely with Panchayat bodies and Government agencies (like Forest Department, Biodiversity Board etc) and corporates through their CSR programs. He is one of the RAC members of Earth Science department of Kachchh University.
He also served as Executive Director of Sahjeevan. He had published more than thirty research papers and popular articles.
Arpit, having Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering and Master Degree in Ecology and Environment. He has over 18 years of professional experience in public, private, and corporate environments, across diverse functional areas ranging from IT & GIS to Conservation, with a predominant focus on conservation. He got involved in applying technology tools in improvement in in Wildlife conservation, NRM and sustainable development domains.
He worked with some of the highly reputed organization in the field of NRM and wildlife conservation. These include, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), WWF-India and Wildlife Trust of India. Arpit is pursuing his Ph.D. on issue of avian distribution under climate change scenarios using modelling tools involving Big-Data.
He is an avid bird photographer with more than 1000 images appeared in international publications. He is the recipient of the prestigious Carl Zeiss Award for his contribution in Wildlife Conservation.
Arpit Deomurari
Hargovan Patel
Mr. Hargovan Patel has completed his post- graduation in Rural Studies from Sanosara Campus of Lokbharti under Bhavnagar University. Lokbharti is one of the many institutions having Gandhian visions of integrating education with rural development. He has more than 25 years of field experience in community mobilization in natural resource management and livelihood enhancement, especially around rural women groups.
He started his career with AKRSP and later worked with different grassroot organization like MARAG. He also worked in some of the important Govt. programs including by WASMO, World Bank and IFAD supported ‘Swashakti’ and World Bank supported Biodiversity Conservation and Rural Livelihood Improvement Project (BCRLIP) in Little Rann of Kachchh landscape, Gujarat. He is one of the master trainers in many rural development programs, including the Social Audits.
He is also a visiting faculty in Gujarat’s State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD). He is also one of the Managing Trustees of Vasundhara Foundation, a group that works on issues related to sustainable farming, learning enhancement in school education, women empowerment, etc.
Kinjal Trivedi earn her M.Sc. degree in Marine Science from Bhavnagar University. She has more than 10 years of experience of active field research. She worked intensively on two of the major coastal & marine ecosystems in the State- the Mangroves and Coral Reefs. On Coral Reefs she was associated with preparation of Coral Atlas of Gujarat and in a study on economic valuation coral reef ecosystem in Gulf of Kachchh.
On mangroves, she was associated with studies on socio-economic values of mangrove plantation and also the evaluation of mangrove plantation efforts under different schemes.
She also engaged in nature education programs, preparation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR) and socio-economic surveys and review of secondary literature.
Kinjal N Trivedi

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