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AUTHOR |  ARTIST | ANALYST

​forests, food, and land rights of rural and indigenous peoples
My story is my choice to be a curious mind and a creative soul. I identify as an indigenous author, artist, analyst, and academician. 

One World.  For my work, I have been an expat - resident for two or more years - outside India.  I lived in  10 countries in South and Southeast Asia, South and North America, East Africa, and Europe.  I am fluent in English, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi, and communicate in Spanish, French, Bahasa Indonesia, Gujarati while have basic command on Bhili dialect, Swedish, and Urdu. 
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​My professional career has been with a diverse range of institutions - starting with non-governmental organizations, working with philanthropy, and research organizations, and most recently with an academic/ higher educational institute. 
As an anthropologist, my work have always been on the interface of the social and political ecology of forests, agroforestry, small farms, and land tenure rights of rural and mainly Indigenous communities including pastoralists and hunting-gathering tribes in the tropics.

Academic:  My interdisciplinary Ph.D. degree in Forest Rights from Wageningen University, the Netherlands combines my interdisciplinary expertise in social science, and environmental science. 
I hold a Masters degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Fellowships include Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program at the University of California, Berkeley; the Biodiversity and Monitoring  Program at the Smithsonian Institute, Front Royal, Virginia; and Training in Environment Education at  CEE, Ahmedabad, among a few others.  
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As a sole author, my new book publication (Routledge/ CRC press, 2024)  is an evidence-based ethnographic book, entitled, 
​​Acknowledging Indigenous Knowledge: Voices from the Tropical Forests. ​
As an artivist, I am director and producer of documentary films that communicate science with a diverse range of stakeholders about forests and society, including indigenous peoples, via my self-funded initiative; see Landing Together Films.  ​​
Anthropologist by heart, my fieldwork takes me to remotest part of the tropical forests in the Global South like the one in photo from Tibetan plateau. 



​Active pro bono member
I am IUFRO's (International Union of Forest Research Organization) Coordinator for Division 6 on Social Aspects of Forests and Forestry, and IUFRO's Voting Board member.  

The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (Kungl. Skogs- och Lantbruksacademien or KSLA)  elected me as an International Fellow. 


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