Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT)

Established When and by Whom: It is an autonomous organisation established during 1986 under Societies Act by the Government of Kerala, now functioning under power dept.

Headquarter: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

Objective: To gather and disseminate useful knowledge in various fields of Non-Conventional Energy, Energy Conservation, and Rural Technology.

Key Functions:

To conduct studies, demonstrate, implement and support implementations of schemes and project in these fields and thereby deal with the problems arising out of the rapid depletion of conventional energy sources

To update the technologies used in rural areas as well as introduce appropriate new technologies with an aim to reduce drudgery, increase production and improve quality of life.

Wildlife Trust of India

Established When and by Whom: It was formed in November 1998 in response to the rapidly deteriorating condition of wildlife in India. WTI is a registered charity in India (under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961). It is a non-profit organisation.

Headquarter: NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh

Objective: To conserve wildlife and its habitat and to work for the welfare of individual wild animals.

Key Functions:

WTI currently focuses its resources on six priority landscapes – northeast India, western Himalayas, terai, southern Ghats system, central India and marine.

Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) currently runs 44 projects across India.

Its Depth Projects holistically address multiple conservation hurdles specific to an area through a multi-pronged approach

Its Breadth Projects address specific conservation issues that may not be limited in time and space in the country, such as the training of frontline forest staff and preventing wild animal deaths due to train hits.

Wildlife Institute of India

Established When and by Whom: It is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change, Government of India. It was founded in 1982.

Headquarter: The institute is based in Dehradun, India.

Objective: To nurture the development of wildlife science and promote its application in conservation, in consonants with our cultural and socio-economic milieu.

Key Functions:

WII carries out wildlife research in areas of study like Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Wildlife Policy, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Forensics, Spatial Modeling, Ecodevelopment, Habitat Ecology and Climate Change.

WII has a research facility which includes Forensics, Remote Sensing and GIS, Laboratory, Herbarium, and an Electronic Library.

World Sustainable Development Summit

Organised When and by Whom: The Energy and Resources Institute’s (TERI) annual event, the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS), has evolved to the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS).
Date: 5 October 2016–8 October 2016

Location: New Delhi

Objective: To provide long-term solutions for the benefit of the global community by assembling the various stakeholders on a single platform(in the area of environment conservation).

Key Takeaways:

The WSDS brings together Nobel laureates, political leaders, decision-makers from bilateral and multilateral institutions, business leaders, high-level functionaries from the diplomatic corps, scientists and researchers, media personnel, and members of civil society; to deliberate on issues related to sustainable development.

India specific trivia:

WSDS 2016 was held in New Delhi from October 5-8, 2016 under the broad rubric of ‘Beyond 2015: People, Planet & Progress’, and it broadly focused on actions, on accelerated implementation of SDGs and NDCs.

The 4 days of discussions among different stakeholders clearly established that sustainability should not be a peripheral activity but should become a mainstream movement and that now is the time to translate all the promises to action.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)

Established When: 1980.

Headquarter: New Delhi

Objective:  To develop into an excellent resource centre with information — printed and visual — on sustainable development issues, which is possibly the best in India.

Key Functions:

It is a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organisation.

It works as a think tank on environment-development issues in India, poor planning, climate shifts devastating India’s Sundarbans and advocates for policy changes and better implementation of the already existing policies.

CSE uses knowledge-based activism to create awareness about problems and propose sustainable solutions.

Conserve

Established When and by Whom: In 1998, when the Delhi government launched the Bhagidari campaign, asking its citizens to participate in civic initiatives, the conservationist, Anita Ahuja and her IIT-alumna husband Shalabh rose to the challenge and launched Conserve. It is an NGO.

Objective: To counter the issue of plastic bags.(Recycling)

Key Functions:

Anita and Shalabh Ahuja founded Conserve India as an NGO to recycle the waste in their neighborhood that wasn’t being managed by local authorities.

They quickly realized that plastic bags pose the biggest problem, not only because there are so many of them but also because they could not be recycled locally.

After much experimentation, the team at Conserve India realised that the solution lay in upcycling the bags into sheets of plastic that could be reinvented as fashion accessories. They named this material Handmade Recycled Plastic.

Shalabh and Anita combined his expertise in engineering and her creative talents to get the most out of their solution to this huge problem.

As well as cleaning Delhi’s streets, they have worked to provide hundreds of jobs for some of the poorest people living in their city. The income they generate by selling products made from Handmade Recycled Plastic, is then spent on social welfare projects.

Today they continue to realise their vision. Conserve India bags are being sold around the world. The proceeds of this work are put to good use.

Firstly, better wages for Conserve employees – a ragpicker collecting bags for Conserve earns on average three times more selling to us than they would earn elsewhere.

Secondly, training opportunities for all staff at Conserve India so that they can get more skilled jobs either within the organisation or elsewhere.

Thirdly, a school in the slum where many of the ragpickers we work with live. Finally, loans for Conserve workers to develop their own start-up businesses, and most recently a health clinic for the entire workforce.

Environmentalist Foundation of India

Established When and by Whom: Started in 2007 and registered in 2011

Headquarter:  Chennai, Hyderabad, Puducherry and Coimbatore

Objective: Wildlife conservation and habitat restoration

Key Functions:

• The organisation is known for its work in cleaning and scientific restoration of lakes in India for biodiversity.
• The organisation and its efforts grew from that one pond in Chennai to include over 39 lakes and 48 ponds in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Pondicherry and Gujarat in the last 10 years (2007 to 2017)
• EFI is also involved in the setting up of herbal biodiversity gardens at schools and special interest zones. The idea behind the herbal gardens are to increase people’s interest in green cover and live healthy with native Indian herbs.
• EFI’s “Clean for Olive Green” is a beach clean up project that is organised every year in the months of December to May to keep Chennai’s beaches clean for the nesting Sea Turtle Mothers.

National Green Corps

Established by Whom: It is a programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests of Government of India.

Objective of the body:

NGC Programme aims at building cadres of young children working towards environmental conservation and sustainable development.

Key Functions:

The functions of this programme are:

• to impart knowledge to school children, through hands on experience, about their immediate environment, interactions within it and the problems therein
• to inculcate proper attitudes towards the environment and its conservation through community interactions
• to sensitize children to issues related to environment and development through field visits and demonstrations
• to motivate and stimulate young minds by involving them in action projects related to environmental conservation.

Bombay Natural History Society

Established When: It was founded on 15 September 1883. It is an NGO.

Headquarter: Mumbai

Objective of the body: Environment Conservation and biodiversity research

Key Functions:

• It supports many research efforts through grants and publishes the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.
• BNHS is the partner of BirdLife International in India.
• It has been designated as a ‘Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’ by the Department of Science and Technology.
• It sponsors studies in Indian wildlife and conservation, and publishes a four-monthly journal, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (JBNHS), as well as a quarterly magazine, Hornbill.

The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI)

Established When and by Whom:  Established in 1974, it was formerly known as Tata Energy and Resource Institute. As the scope of its activities widened, it was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003.

Headquarter: New Delhi, India

Objective: To work towards global sustainable development, creating innovative solutions for environment conservation.

Key Functions:

1. The scope of the organisation’s activities includes climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy, biotechnology, and social transformation.

World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) – An annual summit which facilitates the exchange of knowledge on diverse aspects of global sustainable development.

LaBL (Lighting a Billion Lives) – An initiative to provide clean lighting access to bottom of the pyramid communities.

Green Olympiad – Conducted in association with MoEF, it is an international environment examination that is annually organized for middle and high-school students.

2. TERI Press, TERI’s publishing arm releases a plethora of publications out of which some noteworthy publications are :

TerraGreen – Monthly magazine of TERI on issues of environment, biodiversity, livelihood rights, wildlife, energy, and sustainable development.

TERI Energy Data Directory and Yearbook (TEDDY) : Launched in 1986, it is a compilation of energy and environment data. It is a comprehensive reference document and a source of information on energy supply sectors (coal and lignite, oil and gas, power, and renewable energy sources) as well as energy-consuming sectors (agriculture, industry, transport, residential, and commercial sectors).

3. GRIHA

Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) was conceived by TERI and developed with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is a national rating system for green buildings in India

Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation

Established When: It is a registered non-profit organisation, founded in 2012.

Headquarter: Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh

Objective:

To protect and conserve the nature, natural resources and rights of the nature dependent communities in the ecologically fragile landscape of Vindhya Range in India. It tries to achieve its objective through Research, Advocacy, Education, Community mobilization, Litigation.

Key Functions:

Vindhya Bachao Abhiyan: It is the flagship program of VENHF which works towards environmental equity and bringing ecological justice through research-based environmental litigation, strengthening grass-root environmental movements, supporting institution of local governance and protecting the rights of nature dependent indigenous communities.

*VENHF is partner of EKOenergy and Global Call for Climate Action

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)

Established by: Kamaljit S. Bawa is its founder.

Headquarter: Banglore

Objective:

Its mission is to generate rigorous interdisciplinary knowledge for achieving environmental conservation and sustainable development in a socially just manner, to enable the use of this knowledge by policy makers and society, and to train the next generation of scholars and leaders.

Key Functions:

It is a research institution in the areas of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. It focuses on applied science through research, education and action that influence policy and practice on conservation of nature, management of natural resources, and sustainable development.

It envisions a society committed to environmental conservation and sustainable and socially just development, in which ATREE plays the role of a model knowledge-generating organization for catalyzing the transition to such a society.

Save Aravali Trust

Headquarter: Faridabad, Haryana

Objective:

Major objectives are:

1. Afforestation and wildlife care
2. Water Conservation
3. Environmental Literacy
4. Waste Management

Key Functions: It is working for the betterment of Aravali– the oldest mountain range of India. The motive is to make it green, home to wildlife and entity of prosperity for the humans.

Narmada Bachao Aandolan

Established When and by Whom:  The people’s state the Narmada Bachao Andolan, every people practice hard for save to the Narmada River. This Movement is mobilised itself against the development in the mid and late 1980’s.

Objective: The people started the Narmada Bacho Andolan with the goal of saving and protest the River Narmada.

Why was it started?

• It is a social movement consisting of adivasis, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against the number of large dams being built across the Narmada River, which flows through the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, all over India.
• Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is one of the biggest dams on the river and was one of the first focal points of the movement. It is one of the many dams under the Narmada Dam Project. The main aim of the project is to provide irrigation and electricity to people in these states.
• Their mode of the campaign includes court actions, hunger strikes, rallies, and garnering support from notable film and art personalities. Narmada Bachao Andolan, with its leading spokespersons Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, who have received the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.