ESG Team

Environment Support Group is an openly structured organisation that has achieved high levels of participation in its activities from its Full Time Staff, Trustees, Support Team and Advisory Panel.

Trustees

Dr. Robert John Chandran is a Tropical Plant Ecologist presently a Fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, Bangalore. He has worked as a Smithsonian Fellow at the Dept. of Botany, University of Georgia, USA and University of Illinois. He has a Ph.D. from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and his past degrees include M. Sc. and M Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His research interests include tropical forest ecology and management, conservation biology, protected area management and land use policy.  He is currently working full time as an Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. 

Arthur Pereira is an active human rights activist in Mangalore and has successfully led the demand for fair compensation by Dalit and minority communities due to the Bajpe airport for over a decade now. He played a key role in mobilizing communities affected by the Airport expansion plan in Bajpe and also fought the expansion of the airport at the State High court and later at the Supreme Court on grounds of safety.  He is well versed on matters relating to Land Acquisition and has helped hundreds of farmers to benefit from the provisions of Land Reforms Act. His expertise also lies in building homes and rain water harvesting units to ease the struggle for water in major cities such as Bangalore, Mangalore and Mysore.

Leo F. Saldanha is full-time Coordinator of ESG. He has gained wide-ranging experience in the areas of Environmental Law and Policy, Decentralisation, Urban Planning and a variety of Human Rights and Development related issues, working across many sectors for over a decade. He is a keen campaigner on critical environmental and social justice issues and has guided several campaigns demanding evolution of progressive laws and effectiv action. He has creatively supported various distressed communities to secure justice through public interest litigations and advocacy efforts. He has argued as party in person several public interest litigations, many of which have resulted in remarkable judgments. In 2007, he co-authored the book “Green Tapism” critiquing the Environment Impact Notification 2006 along with team members at ESG. His articles have appeared in many leading new papers, journals and magazines. He facilitates a variety of learning programmes on environmental and social justice concerns for a wide range of audiences. He was the Country Coordinator and Faculty of the "Cities in the 21st Century" and "Health and Community" courses of the International Honours Programme, USA from 2002-2009. He has a background in Environmental Science from St. Joseph's College, Bangalore University and has been invited as a speaker by organisations and universities across the world.  In August 2010, he was invited as a speaker at the International Forum on China's Rural Reform in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period organised by the Chinese Insitute for Reform and Development, a Chinese Government think-tank for reform in policy decision-making. In recognition of his contribution to environmental and social justice efforts, Association for India's Development, USA, has made him a Saathi.

Bhargavi S. Rao graduated in Environmental Science and is a Botanist with an M’Phil degree in Aerobiology from Bangalore University. She also has a post graduate diploma in Journalism. Her initial research experience was in the areas of Microbiology and Cell Biology and she has worked at the Microbiology and Cell Biology Department of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She has co-authored research papers in journals like Current Science and Virology. She has had teaching experience as a lecturer in Botany and Microbiology at The BMS College for Women, Bangalore and also as a high School Teacher in Geography and Economics at the Sri Aurobindo Memorial School, Bangalore. Her interest in environmental and social justice issues brought her to Environment Support Group (ESG), a not-for-profit research, education and campaign organization, where she has taken a leading role in a wide variety of Research and Educational projects and Campaign initiatives.

Some key initiatives Bhargavi has taken at ESG include research on the impacts of mining on the flora and fauna in the Kudremukh National Park, development of a range community engagement and worker training techniques in municipal solid waste management in Bangalore and Raichur Districts of Karnataka, documentation and development of Guidelines for Segregation, Collection and Safe Disposal of Hazardous waste in Karnataka, studying the socio-economic impacts of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project, survey and documentation of the health impacts of West Coast Paper Mill effluents on tribal communities living along Kali river in North Karnataka.

Bhargavi has helped in the research and awareness building on the health impacts of the coal fired thermal power plant in Chamalapura and has critically engaged with ESG in the process of filing Public Interest Litigations on issues of saving and protecting common property resources such as lakes and urban greenery. She has been involved in research regarding the legal aspects of approvals for genetically engineering agricultural food crops and the Biodiversity laws. She has supported the coastal fish workers campaign for an independent coastal regulation zone law. She has taken an active role in enhancing awareness on environmental governance issues with a focus on public participation.

Bhargavi coordinates educational and training programmes at ESG with a focus on enhancing awareness and critical engagement in social and environmental justice issues. She has co-worked as Coordinator and faculty of the India sector of the ‘Cities of the 21st Century’ and ‘Health and Community’ courses of the International Honors program, a study abroad program in which undergraduate students from some of the best American universities spend 4-5 weeks in India as part of a semester abroad program. She has been a co-speaker at many of the talks and workshops on the issues of Environment and Social Justice in universities across the United States of America, Germany, China and Vietnam. In recognition of her long standing contribution in the voluntary sector, the Association for India’s Development has awarded her the AID “Saathiship”. She is also a guest faculty at the Vivekananada Institute for Leadership Development, Mysore.

Her interests include Environmental Education, Experiential Education, Environmental health, Biodiversity, Traditional and Indigenous knowledge, Governance, Gender Issues, Law, Public Policy and Urban and Community studies.

Staff

K. R. Mallesha is Administrative Officer at ESG. He has a background in Social Sciences from the Bangalore University and over a decade's experience working with NGOs. He comes with a great commitment to advocacy on behalf of the environment and social justice and supports all the public interest legal initiatives of ESG. Coming from the hilly region of the Western Ghats, he has an immense understanding of the forests, rivers and farming practices and facilitates ESG’s educational field visits. He also helps coordinate documentation and ESG's Press Campaigns. He assists in mobilizing community organizations and is involved in field organizing for various legal and field campaign initiatives.

Anjali Vaidya has a background in biological sciences from Bryn Mawr College and supports the management of ESG's website.

Support Team

Madhusudhan Kopparam: Madhu is a communications and branding consultant, currently based in Belgium. He is remotely involved in a variety of environmental and animal rights campaigns and holds a Masters degree in Mass Communications from Bangalore University and an MBA from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Belgium.

Dr. Subramanya Sastry: Subbu has maintained the online support site for the Narmada Bachao Andolan, for a couple of years and has also been a volunteer with Asha, USA. Among other things, he has developed Newsrack, a software tool that helps track and archive news. His interests include various people's initiatives in environmental and social justice issues. He holds a Ph. D. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Advisory Panel

Dr. Subbarayan Prasanna retired as Professor of Urban and Regional Planning from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He has made extensive contributions in a variety of urban and regional planning areas, is a leading expert on issues related to municipal law, urban finance and decentralization of urban administration and is also an architect. He assists a variety of civil society organisations in advocating planned and decentralized development for urban and industrial areas. The High Court of Karnataka appointed him as a Member of an Expert Committee to review urban infrastructure projects as a consequence of a PIL filed by ESG.

Dr. Lakshmi Nilakantan is a Statistician with a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, USA and MS from Mc Gill University, Montreal. She has made seminal contributions in the area of Game Theory, and has critically acclaimed publications in leading journals of Mathematics. She has several years of teaching experience in Minnesota, Indian Statistical Institute, and Indian Institute of Management. She has had corporate experience with Gallup, and is presently an independent consultant. She is actively involved in conducting statistical surveys to assist ESG's research and campaign initiatives. This includes ESG’s Community Access project at Raichur, socio-economic survey of Chamalapura and in reviewing the impacts of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project.

Dr. Shirdi Prasad Tekur is an expert in Community Health, practicing Child Specialist and a well-known practitioner in Alternative Health Systems. An alumnus of St. John’s Medical College Hospital, he has discharged his services as a medical professional in the Defense Services in order to involve more actively in civil society. He is actively involved in ESG’s Community Access project at Raichur, Karnataka. The High Court of Karnataka appointed him as a Member of an Expert Committee to review urban infrastructure projects as a consequence of a PIL filed by ESG.

Sunil Dutt Yadav is an Advocate in the High Court of Karnataka and has BA, LLB (Hons.) from the National Law School of India University. He is the Counsel for ESG in all legal matters.