VASUNDHARA

Mr. Panda joined Vasundhara in April 2007 as the Executive Director. He is an M.A in Political Science from Utkal University. He had been actively involved in many democratic movements of students, youths and peasants against social injustice during 1978 to 1991 in Orissa. From 1992 to 1999 and 2002 to 2007 he worked with CPSW and ODAF in various management positions including leadership of ODAF Secretariat. During 1999 to 2002 he was engaged in an action research on PESA under OXFAM. He has a vast experience of programme management, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy and campaign, networking and alliance building, capacity building, community mobilization, policy analysis and action research, sustainable livelihood promotion, disaster preparedness, human resource management etcetera. He developed his expertise in advocacy strategy planning and sustainable livelihood promotion. His contributions towards the campaign against commercial plantations in common lands and campaign for adivasi rights over non-timber forest produce is noteworthy. His commitments towards the causes of marginalized communities, democracy and secularism keeps him involved voluntarily in various social movements. We expect the organization to benefit from his experience and involvements.

Prasant Mohanty is functioning as Assistant Director of Vasundhara. He has been engaged for many years on institutional issues relating to community forestry and sustainable livelihood interventions. He is leading the Community Empowerment Initiatives (Ranpur) team. His expertise lies in facilitating and strengthening community forestry federation, strengthening forest based livelihood options for marginalized poor and sustainable agriculture practices. He is also involved in visual documentation of community development initiatives. His academic portfolio includes Masters degree in Development Planning and Administration from University of Pune Prior to this, he worked with alternative education and watershed approaches.

Y. Giri Rao is leading the thematic team-Conservation and Livelihood within Vasundhara and is one of the senior members of Vasundhara. He joined in 1995. Prior to this he worked with Gram Vikas, Mohuda for five years. He has a number of years of experience of working with communities at grass roots on education, health and marketing the rural products. Having a highly inquisitive mind, he was initially involved in research on institutional issues and was also actively associated with Orissa Jungle Manch, a state level federation formed for advocating forestry issues in Orissa. Of late he is more into policy research and advocacy on conservation and livelihood issues, alliance building and media advocacy. Along with being a Treasurer of Vasundhara he is also the staff representative to the Executive Committee

Rana Roy is a Post-Graduate in Rural Development from the Xavier Institute of Social Services, Ranchi. He has been working with Vasundhara since 1999 on research on community forestry and NTFP issues. Currently he is coordinating the NTFP based self-reliant cooperative process spread across Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Angul districts of Orissa. In the past he was also involved in assisting the Director in overall programme support and coordination.

Pushpanjali is handling documentation and publication work for Vasundhara. Her interests are varied and she is closely involved in different organizational activities and contributes in wider dissemination of our learning and research findings through her writings. In addition, she is also a part of Vasundhara’s team that works with community forestry federation and community institutions in Ranapur. She has been with Vasundhara since 2003. In this short span, she has emerged as an analyst to discuss interventions and strategies for almost all thematic teams. Before joining Vasundhara, she worked with ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme, a Govt. programme). Along with a Masters Degree in Political Science, she is also a B.Ed.

Pradip Mishra came on board in November 2004. He is a part of the thematic team, Land Tenure, Access and Rights and has been exploring the issues of land tenure of tribals and other marginal groups, mainly in western Orissa in the districts of Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Bargarh and Deogarh. He is an M.Phil in International Studies from JNU, Delhi and a Masters degree in Political Science. Prior to this, he worked on a study of the dynamics of Kendu Leaf Collection and Trade in Western Orissa.

Sricharan is a social anthropologist and has done research in tribal areas in Orissa on indigenous knowledge and traditional forest management systems of the forest dwelling tribes. He joined Vasundhara in July 2005 and is associated with the Land Rights-Access and Tenure team. He is primarily looking into forestland and tribal rights and policy aspects. Before joining Vasundhara he has undertaken research particularly on relationship between common property resources and women. Besides research experience, he has also been involved in relief activities during Orissa super cyclone. His educational credentials include a Masters and an M.Phil degree in Sociology from JNU, Delhi. Recently, he was awarded the doctoral degree on social anthropology from JNU, Delhi.

Manohar has done his masters in political science and holds an M.Phil degree. He is basically a researcher in socio-economic political and public administration having a research experience of more than seven years. Currently he is pursuing his doctoral studies as a UGC research scholar under Sambalpur University. Experiencing the burn of exploitative society closely, he posses the spark and charge to work hard towards bringing a social change. He is associated with the thematic team of Land Rights, Access & Tenure and is primarily associated with research and documentation.

Sweta is an environmentalist and is an M.Phil in Environmental Science. She has worked on energy auditing and watershed development. She also has extensive research experiences on community forestry, indigenous forest management practices, NTFP inventory, sustainable NTFP harvesting method etc. She joined the Conservation and Livelihood thematic team of Vasundhara in August 2005. In Vasundhara she is engaged in biodiversity and ecological research and in advocacy work focusing on biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihood issues. Her primary responsibility is coordinating research and advocacy on livelihood and traditional rights of communities residing in and around the protected areas.

Himanshu joined Vasundhara in August 2005. He holds an M.Phil degree in Environmental Science with environmental biotechnology as his specialization. In addition, he has done a diploma course in Environmental Management System & ISO 14000/14001 from IIMT, Chennai. In Vasundhara he is associated with the Environment Conservation team and is primarily involved in conducting field monitoring to assess environment pollution. Along with this, he is responsible for environment laboratory equipments and undertaking laboratory analysis and media reporting. His expertise exists in the area of environmental studies and watershed management. He has worked extensively on ecological and soil assessment studies, rapid environment impact assessment and environment management plans.

Ethelrida joined Vasundhara in June 2006 and holds a post-graduate degree in Rural Development from XISS, Ranchi. She is a member of Sustainable Livelihood and Economic Democratization thematic team and is primarily involved in the process of facilitation of NTFP based women cooperative institutions in Kuchinda region. She has excellent academic credentials and in addition, has wide Knowledge of tribal dialects.

Bhagyalaxmi works with the Ranapur team and is involved with the capacity building of federation of community forestry groups and community institutions and women’s groups. She joined us in 1998, and has worked relentlessly on bringing women on board in the community forestry federation. Her efforts have made a remarkable change in increasing women’s participation in the federation and in bringing their livelihood issues an agenda of the federation. She has also been facilitating women’s groups to take up NTFP based livelihood activities. Prior to Vasundhara she worked with self-help groups and thrift groups in the Nayagarh district of Orissa. Her special interests also include local conflict resolution processes. She is a graduate from Utkal University and also has a Diploma in Rural Development from I.G.N.O.U.

Nilamani joined the Ranapur team in 2003. He has extensive prior experience with forest protecting groups, and with networking and advocacy efforts in Nayagarh district. In Vasundhara, he works with Maa Maninag Jungle Surakhya Parishad and supports the process of strengthening the federation and its democratization.

Krupasindhu Parida has been working as the Financial Manager and Accountant in Vasundhara since 2001. Prior to Vasundhara, he worked with a number of business establishments as ORUPA, Pallishree and also with NGOs such as SVA, Sanhati in Orissa. He has completed his intermediate level of ICWAI and has a Diploma in Computer Application.

Manoj joined us in 2004. He is a graduate who has been an excellent student, and a fast learner. His primary responsibility in Vasundhara includes providing assistance in documentation work and in day-to-day administrative matters.

Madhav belongs to the Ranpur team where work on federation building of CFM initiatives is in progress. A highly energetic person, he has been an ardent supporter of community forestry initiatives in the region. He formally joined Vasundhara in 2003, however he has been facilitating community mobilization towards strengthening CFM much prior to this.