WDr. Ajit Kumar Banerjee was a noted environmentalist and expert in forest management and is known to be the father of the concept of Joint Forest Management, often abbreviated as JFM. Banerjee received global attention for the Arabari project in West Bengal, India where he introduced the JFM concept for the first time in 1972.
WKamaljit Singh Bawa, FRS is an evolutionary ecologist, conservation biologist and a distinguished professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is also the founder of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE). In 2012, Bawa received the first Gunnerus Sustainability Award, the world's major international award for work on sustainability. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.
WAparajita Datta is an Indian wildlife ecologist who works for the Nature Conservation Foundation. Her research in the dense tropical forests of Arunachal Pradesh has successfully focused on hornbills, saving them from poachers. In 2013, she was one of eight conservationists to receive the Whitley Award.
WRaghavendra Gadagkar is a full professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India, who studies evolution of social behaviour using eusocial insects using Ropalidia marginata, a locally common wasp as a model. He was, from 2014 to 2016, the president of the Indian National Science Academy.
WMadhav Dhananjaya Gadgil is an Indian ecologist, academic, writer, columnist and the founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, a research forum under the aegis of the Indian Institute of Science. He is a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and the Head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of 2010, popularly known as the Gadgil Commission. He is a recipient of the Volvo Environment Prize and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 1981 and followed it up with the third highest award of the Padma Bhushan in 2006.
WDhrubajyoti Ghosh was a UN Global 500 laureate, special advisor on agricultural ecosystems, part of the Commission on Ecosystem Management, and regional chair for South Asia of the IUCN. He is most credited for devoting his life for the survival of the East Kolkata Wetlands, naming it, and creating the world's only fully functioning organic sewage management system.
WAnil Prakash Joshi is an Indian green activist, social worker, botanist and the founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), a Dehradun-based non governmental organization involved in the development of environmentally sustainable technologies for the agricultural sector. He is a recipient of the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and is an Ashoka Fellow. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2006, for his contributions to Indian society. He was also awarded by Padma Bhushan 2020 for social work in Uttarakhand.
WChandra Prakash Kala is an Indian ecologist and professor. His research interests include alpine ecology, conservation biology, indigenous knowledge systems, ethnobotany and medicinal aromatic plants. He is an assistant professor in the faculty area of Ecosystem and Environment Management at the Indian Institute of Forest Management.
WJagdish Chandra Kapur is an Indian social scientist, entrepreneur and the founder of Kapur Surya Foundation and Kapur Solar Farms. He is also the Editor of World Affairs Journal, a publication aiming at and providing a platform for better interaction between the developed and the developing nations. The Government of India honoured him in 2010, with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award, for his services to the fields of science and technology.
WAshish Kothari is an Indian environmentalist working on development, environment interface, biodiversity policy, and alternatives. He is one of founders of Kalpavriksh, a Non-Profit Organisation in India which deals with environmental and development issues. He has been associated with peoples' movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and Beej Bachao Andolan. Kothari has also been a teacher of environment at Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. He has also been a guest faculty at several universities and institutes and Mellon Fellow at Bowdoin College, USA.
WMysore Doreswamy Madhusudan, Ph. D., is an Indian wildlife biologist and ecologist. He is the Co-founder and Director of Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds. He has worked on understanding and mitigating the effects of human-wildlife conflict in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in South India. He has also worked in several other forests in the Himalayas and North-east India. In 2004, he was one among the team of wildlife biologists who described Arunachal macaque, a new species of macaque from Arunachal Pradesh, India.
WSanjeeva Nayaka is a well-known Lichenologist of India, currently working as Senior Principal Scientist at CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI), Lucknow. He is also in-charge of Algology Laboratory at the same institute; Secretary of ‘Indian Lichenological Society’ and ‘Lucknow Kannada Association’. Dr. Nayaka is an Associate Editor of the journal ‘Cryptogam Biodiversity and Assessment’.
WAmrita Patel is an Indian businessperson associated with cooperative dairy sector as well as environmentalist. She headed National Dairy Development Board from 1998 to 2014 which led the world's biggest dairy development program Operation Flood. She chaired several other institutes and has been a member of board of banks. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2001.
WAditya Narayan Purohit is an Indian scientist and professor who has mainly worked on ecophysiology of tree species and physiology of high altitude medicinal plants. He was born in village Kimni, Dist. Chamoli. He has served as the Vice-Chancellor of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University and as director of the university's High Altitude Plant Physiology Research Center. He was also the Director of Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development from 1990 to 1995. Purohit was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, by the President of India in 1997 for his valuable scientific contribution in Indian mountains.
WVadayil Sankaran Vijayan is an Indian environmentalist, wildlife biologist, ornithologist, an admirer of naturopathy and the founding Director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History. He is currently the chairman of the Salim Ali Foundation[1].