Ms. Madhu Sarin is the President of Vasundhara’s Executive Committee (EC).  Since the early 1980s, she has worked on rural development planning, participatory and sustainable forest management, and gender justice and women’s empowerment, combining grassroots work with advocacy for policy changes at the state and national levels.  Madhu has written extensively on these issues, with papers published in international and national books and journals.  She is a member of the drafting committee and Technical Support Group appointed by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, for the Tribal and Forest Dwellers (Forest Rights) Bill.  She is also actively associated with the National Campaign for Survival and Dignity.  In addition to being on the governing board of several NGOs in India, such as Vikram Sarabai Centre for Development Interaction (VIKSAT), Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), and Sutra, she also serves on the boards of Regional Community Forestry Training Center (Bangkok) and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK.  She has an extensive understanding of issues relating to forests, tribal land rights, and forest governance in Orissa; and provides extensive advisory inputs to Vasundhara’s interventions.

Ms. Neera Singh is a founding member of Vasundhara and is currently functioning as Vice President of the EC.  She has been engaged for several years with community forestry issues in Orissa.  Her experience includes research on self-initiated community forestry initiatives, gender and equity issues, and policy advocacy and networking around forest-based livelihood issues.  She is pursuing a Ph.D. degree at Michigan State University, USA, and is currently at an advanced stage of her dissertation research on community forestry federations in Orissa.

Y. Giri Rao joined Vasundhara in 1995 and currently is working as the Secretary cum Executive Director of Vasundhara.  He was initially involved in research on institutional issues, and was actively associated with Orissa Jungle Manch, a state-level federation formed for advocating forestry issues in Orissa. More recently he focuses on policy research and advocacy on conservation and livelihood issues, alliance building and media advocacy. Email:-ygiri.rao@gmail.com

Dr. Angana Chatterji is an Associate Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.  With over 17 years’ experience working on development issues in India and abroad, she has been active in research and action on issues of community forestry, public land reforms, and communalism in Orissa.  She specializes in the areas of social change, environmental management, livelihood, development planning and policy assessment, gender and social rights, and applied and action research.  Published extensively, she also serves on the Board of Directors of Earth Island Institute and International Rivers Network, and has been associated with the University of California’s Asia Forest Network as its Director of Research. 

Mr. Ashish Kothari is a founding member of Kalpavriksh, an environmental action group based in Pune.  Ashish has extensive experience with conservation and livelihood issues in India.  He coordinated the Technical and Policy Core Group, constituted to formulate India’s national biodiversity and conservation strategies.  He is also a member of the expert group involved in drafting the Indian Biological Diversity Bill and the National Wildlife action plan, and is a member of the expert commission of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).  He is also actively associated with people’s movements, such as Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement).  He has published extensively on environment and development issues.

Ms. Hans is a renowned social activist and academic who works on gender issues.  She currently heads Sansristi, a leading organization working on gender and development issues.  She was founder and director of Centre for Women Studies at Utkal University, and has been associated with numerous other developmental processes

Prof. Mishra  has done his Masters from Delhi School of Economics and  PhD from Stern School, New York Univ. USA. Prof. Banikanta Mishra joined Sunadaram (Mutual) Asset Management Company, Chennai, as a Director. He had also been appointed to be a member of an Expert Committee constituted by the General Body of Orissa State Cooperative Bank besides being a member of an Expert Committee of the Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange. Currently Prof Mishra is a faculty in XIMB, Bhubaneswar and is also associated with numerous developmental processes in Orissa.

Sricharan is a social anthropologist and has done research in Orissa’s tribal areas on indigenous knowledge and traditional forest management systems of the forest dwelling tribes. He joined Vasundhara in 2005 is primarily looking into forestland and tribal rights and policies. In addition to research, Sricharan was involved in relief activities after Orissa’s devastating super cyclone. Now he is the Treasurer of Vasundhara. His educational credentials include Master’s and M.Phil degrees in Sociology and a doctoral degree in Social Anthroplogy from JNU, Delhi