Vinay Sankar

Fellow in Residence, Water and Society

Vinay Sankar is a social scientist interested in Political Ecology and Pluralist Economics. He uses a mixed-methods approach to understand the commodification of commons like water, food and forests. After his PhD in the ‘Political Ecology of Small Freshwater Bodies in Central Kerala’ from BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, he was briefly with Christ University, Bangalore, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics. Before switching to academia, he worked in the development sector for four years, associated with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Anand, and Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), Pune.

Vinay was recently awarded, along with Sachin Tiwale, the ATREE Early Career Research Grant for the project titled “New Age Hydro-Agricultural Regime (NAHAR): Understanding Wastewater Governance and the Impact of Wastewater Irrigation on the Environment and Society”.

Projects

New Age Hydro-Agricultural Regime (NAHAR)

Publications

Teaching

Vinay coordinates the core course Economics for Environment and Development for the MSc and PhD programs at ATREE. Additionally, he contributes to courses on Research Methodology, Introduction to Climate Change, and Practicing Interdisciplinary Research on the Environment (C3).

Currently, he is advising a PhD scholar, Meera M., on her thesis and an MSc student, Vinhu V., on her master’s dissertation.

Policy Outreach

Sharad engages actively in contributing his interdisciplinary environmental knowledge to the policy sphere by serving on various local, state and national committees/task forces.

Ongoing engagements:

Member of Madhya Pradesh State Task Force on FRA and PESA (November 2024-)
MOU with Chhattisgarh government: The CFR Central India Initiative, led by Sharad, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tribal Development Department of Chhattisgarh to provide inputs for better implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the state. (October 2024-).

Past engagements:

Member, Working Group on FRA, National Commission on Schedule Tribes (Aug 2022-December 2023). (Closing Report of Working Group).
Member, Working Group on Forest Rights and Community Forest Rights, Chhattisgarh State Planning Commission (Aug 2021-March 2022). (Final Report)
Member, Fact-Finding Committee on Environmental Violations, National Green Tribunal in Sanjay Chauhan vs Central Coalfields Ltd (Jun-Sep 2020) (Amrapali OCP)(Dakra OCP)(Piparwar OCP)(Purnadih OCP)(Rohini OCP)
Member, Committee for Monitoring of CWH process under FRA in Melghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Government of Maharashtra (Nov 2019-May 2020). (Report)
Member, Oversight Committee for Tamnar-Gharghoda block environmental compliance, National Green Tribunal (Feb 2020-Jan 2022) (Report 1) (Report 2) (Report 3)
Member, Fact-Finding Committee appointed by National Green Tribunal in Shivpal Bhagat & Ors vs UoI & Ors (OA 104 of 2018) (Oct 2019) (Report of NGT Committee).
Member, Expert Appraisal Committee (Coal Mining and Thermal Power), Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India (December 2016-July 2020)
Member-Secretary, Task Group on Water Policy, Karnataka Knowledge Commission (Dec 2017-Oct 2019) (Karnataka State Water Policy Draft 2019)
Member, Technical Committee for Development of Bellandur and Varthur Lakes, Bangalore Development Authority (Apr 2018-Mar 2019) and Monitoring Committee for Rejuvenation of Bellandur Lake (Jan 2017-Dec 2017).
Member, Expert Committee on Rejuvenation of Bellandur Lake (May 2016-Nov 2016) (Final Report on Bellandur Lake Rejuvenation)
Member, Karnatake Elephant Task Force, High Court of Karnataka (Jan-Sep 2012). (Final report of KETF)
Member, Joint Committee on Forest Rights Act, Ministry of Environment & Forests and Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India (Apr 2010-Dec 2010). (Final report of Joint Committee)