Sunita Narain

Padma Shri I Indian Environmentalist I Politicial Activist

Who am I

Sunita Narain is an Indian environmentalist and political activist as well as a major proponent of the Green concept of sustainable development Narain is director general of the India-based research institute the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) since 1982, Director of the Society for Environmental Communications, and editor of the fortnightly magazine, Down To Earth.

She is a writer and environmentalist, who uses knowledge for change. In 2005 she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government. She has also received the World Water Prize for work on rainwater harvesting and for its policy influence in building paradigms for community-based water management. In 2005, she also chaired the Tiger Task Force at the direction of the Prime Minister, to evolve an action plan for conservation in the country after the loss of tigers in Sariska. She advocated solutions to build a co-existence agenda with local communities so that the benefits of conservation could be shared and the future secured. Narain was a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Climate Change as well as the National Ganga River Basin Authority.

Narain began her work in the early 1980s, as a co-researcher with Anil Agarwal, an eminent and committed environmentalist who gave the country its environmental concern and message. In 1985, she co-edited the State of India’s Environment report, which built an understanding in the country on why India is so important for the poor. With experience, she learnt that environment and development are two sides of the same coin and that for the millions of poor, who live on the margins of subsistence, it a matter of survival. In 1989, learning from the successful initiatives of people to manage the environment, she along with Anil Agarwal wrote Towards Green Villages advocating local participatory democracy as the key to sustainable development.

Sunita has researched and wrote about how environment must become the basis of livelihood security of people in the country. She has also linked issues of local democracy with global democracy, arguing that every human being has an entitlement to the global atmospheric common. In 2012, she has authored the 7th State of India’s Environment Reports, Excreta Matters, which presents a comprehensive analysis of urban India’s water and pollution challenges.

She has been an inspiring leader, which reflects in her speeches as well. Apart from bringing attention to the key issues, Sunita explains the importance of the environment and paying attention to the global scenario. 

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