Sharachchandra Lele, bulk: 2022-11-20, 2022-12-25

Sharachchandra Lele was born in Pune, Maharashtra. For his undergraduate studies, he pursued electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and for his post graduate studies, computer science and automation at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Having had an interest in the environment and related issues since childhood, he ended up doing his Master’s thesis on the environmental impact of big dams. For pursuing doctoral research, focussing on household economics and forest ecology in the Western Ghats, he was enrolled at University of California, Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. He then worked for a year at the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland for a year, before taking up a post-doctoral position at Harvard University. Thereafter, he collaborated with the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security and the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) to work on property rights regimes in the Western Ghats in Karnataka. He also worked at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on a project on enterprise-based conservation in Biligiri Rangana (BR) Hills. In 2001, Lele set up the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED), with the aim of balancing relevance and rigour by being both interdisciplinary and long-term in research it undertook. At CISED, his research expanded beyond forests to encompass watershed development in drier parts of the country. Later on, at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in 2012, he was part of a four-year interdisciplinary study on urbanising basins. Over the years, Lele has been on various government committees, including those related to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, environmental clearance for coal mining, and the Karnataka High Court’s Elephant Task Force. He has also been involved with teaching courses offered by ATREE.