Dr. Sharachchandra Lele

Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Policy & Governance

slele@atree.org

Real name:

Research Interests

Sharad's research interests include conceptual issues in sustainable development and sustainability, and analyses of institutional, economic, ecological, and technological issues in forest, energy, and water resource management. He attempts to incorporate strong interdisciplinarity in his own research and teaching, which straddles ecology, economics, and political science.

Education

Sharachchandra Lele (aka Sharad Lele) has a broad interest in resource and environmental issues, which began while he was doing his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering in IIT Bombay. He moved to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, where he completed an M.S. in Systems Science in 1987, working on the optimal sizing of hydropower projects incorporating the energy and economic costs of land submergence. He went on to the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed a Ph.D. in Energy & Resources in 1993 on the definition, measurement and causal analysis of sustainability in forest use in a part of the Western Ghats forests. He then spent a year at the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, Oakland, as a Senior Research Associate and a year at Harvard University as a Bullard Fellow for Forest Research, before returning to Bangalore to work in collaboration with the Institute for Social & Economic Change, and eventually to being involved in the founding of CISED in 2001. He was Coordinator of CISED for 8 years, and following CISED’s merger with ATREE, he is now with ATREE.

Positions Held (post-PhD)

Senior Fellow and Convenor, Centre for Environment & Development, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, 2009-till date.
Senior Fellow & Coordinator (and also co-founder), Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development, Bangalore, 2001-2009.
Project Director, ISEC-Pacific Institute project on "Ecology, Economics, & Institutions of Forest Use in the Western Ghats", Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bangalore, 1995-2001.
Fellow, Biodiversity, Forestry & Rural Energy Division, Tata Energy Research Institute, 1995-1998.
Visiting Fellow, Harvard Institute for International Studies, Harvard University, Aug.1994-Jan 1995.
Senior Research Associate, Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, Oakland, U.S.A., June 1993-June 1994.

Fellowships

Royal Bank of Canada Water Fellowship, Water Institute, University of Waterloo, Jan-Feb 2016
Andrew Mellon Foundation Visiting Lecturership, Allegheny College, USA, January 2013.
Charles Wallace Trust for India Visiting Fellowship, Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge University, Lent 2011.
Fulbright-Nehru Environmental Leadership fellowship, hosted at Stanford University, Fall 2010.
Yusuf E Hamied Visiting Lecturer, Cambridge-India Partnership, Cambridge University, Summer 2010.
Semester-At-Sea Interport Lecturership, 2007
Bullard Fellowship for Forest Research, Harvard University, 1994-95.
American Institute for Indian Studies Junior Fellowship, 1989-90
Theodore & Edith Brown Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1988-89
Energy & Resource Group Hewlett Foundation Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley, 1987-88

Honours/Awards

Paper Srinivasan et al. 2015 won the “2015 Jim Dooge award for the best paper in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Science (HESS)” from the European Geophysical Union
Paper Heller et al. 2012 won 3rd place in “ERDAS Award for Best Scientific Paper in Remote Sensing for 2012” from ASPRS
Runner-up, Environment Category, 2006 World Technology Awards
Citation Classic, World Development (paper titled “Sustainable Development: A critical review”)
I.I.T. Bombay Silver Medal for standing first in Electrical Engineering class of 1984

Research Grants Obtained

Climate Change and Water programme, International Development Research Centre, Canada, 2012-15 (PI).
Natural Environment Research Council, UK, ESPA Programme, 2011-2013 (PI)
Ford Foundation, Environment Programme, 2008-2010 (PI)
Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust, Western India Livelihoods Programme, 2006-2008 (co-PI)
Ford Foundation, Poverty and NRM Programme, 2005-2007 (co-PI)
WaterAid India, IWRM research grant, 2005-2006 (co-PI)
Ford Foundation, Institution Development Grant, 2001-2004 and 2005-2008 (PI).
South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), 2004- 2006 (PI)
Indian Space Research Organization, RESPOND programme, 2005-2007 (PI).
International Development Research Centre, South Asia programme, 2004-2007 (co-PI).
UNESCO International Hydrological Programme, 2004-2006 (PI).
UNESCO-Ford Foundation, 2002-2006 (PI).
Winrock International India, Small Grants Programme, 2002 (PI).
MacArthur Foundation, World Environment & Resources Program, 1998-2001 (co-PI).
National Remote Sensing Agency: IRS-1C Pilot Project Programme: 1997-98 (PI).
MacArthur Foundation, World Environment Resources Program, 1995-98 (PI).
U.S.Man & the Biosphere Grant, 1990-92
Osborn Foundation (WWF-US) Forestry Policy Grant, 1990-92
Ford Foundation Social Forestry Research Grant, 1989-90

Teaching Experience

Teaches Interdisciplinary Approaches to Environmental Research in ATREE PhD programme; supervising/co-supervising 5 PhD students.
Taught modules on environmental change and governance in ISEC and ATREE PhD programme.
Lectured on Environmental Economics, Environmental Governance, Sustainable Development, Sustainability, Forest Management, Forest Law in various training programmes across India
Designed & conducted CISED Short-Term Course on Environment & Rural Development (3 rounds), Social Science for Natural Scientists (2009), Social Science for Conservation Biologists (2014), Water & Society Summer School (2015).
Guided and Assessed PhD students at ISEC & ATREE.

Books/Edited Books

Lele, S., E. Brondizio, J. Byrne, G. Mace and J. Martinez-Alier, 2018, Rethinking Environmentalism: Linking Justice, Sustainability, and Diversity, MIT Press, USA (in press).
Lele, S. and A. Menon (Eds.) (2014). Democratizing Forest Governance in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Menon, A., P.Singh, E.Shah, Lele, S., S. Paranjape, and K.J. Joy. (2007). Community-Based Natural Resource Management: Issues and Cases from South Asia, Sage India. [pdf] [Doodha Toli case study]
Krishnaswamy, J., Lele, S., and R. Jayakumar (Eds.) (2006). Hydrology and Watershed Services in the Western Ghats of India: Effects of land use and land cover change, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi.
Lélé, S., G. Kadekodi and B. Agrawal (Eds.) (2002). Interdisciplinarity in Environmental Research: Concepts, Barriers and Possibilities, Indian Society for Ecological Economics, New Delhi. For ordering, please mail to: [INSEE].

Talks

"Framing Climate Change within a Broader Environmentalism" in the webinar series organized by Teachers Against Climate Crisis on 5 Oct 2020
"What do we mean by Smart & Sustainable Water Use and How to get there?" at the National Webinar on Championing Smart and Sustainable Water Use and Waste Water Management in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, organized by MumbaiFirst and NEERI on 9 Sept 2020
"The challenges facing the Forest Rights Act" (Hindi), talk given at the National Consultation on Implementation of Forest Rights Act in India, organized by Human Rights Law Network on September 1st, 2019, at New Delhi.
Thinking Environmentally about Bengaluru's Water
Namma Neeru Namma Mannu
Keynote talk titled Why bother about land-use change? and discusssion as part of plenary session on Navigating tradeoffs and fostering synergies in land systems.
First Prakash Gole Memorial Lecture on "Beyond Conservation" organized by Ecological Society Pune, 29 November 2014.