Kirtiman Awasthi is climate change and sustainability professional and is working as Senior Advisor and Team Leader for Wetlands Management for Biodiversity and Climate Protection project at GIZ India. He has spearheaded project management, strategic planning, policy advise, community support, collaborative partnership & resource mobilisation covering issues of climate adaptation & resilience, climate risk management, climate finance, DRR and sustainable development. He has been advising national and state-level partners in strengthening and operationalisation of State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCCs) including capacity development, accessing national and international climate funds and mobilising private sector financing for climate action.

Kirtiman Awasthi has been part of the UNFCCC processes where he covered issues of adaptation, loss & damage and capacity building and supported the Durban Platform process. Kirtiman is an avid biker and loves to travel especially in mountain regions. He is an alumnus of Wageningen University, in the Netherlands.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Kunal is an interdisciplinary professional with 8 years’ experience and an in-depth technical knowledge on development and implementation of projects in the field of climate change and natural resource management. His expertise lies in using research and data-driven tools such as modelling, geospatial analysis and environmental finance instruments for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation and management. Kunal’s systems approach to natural resource management spans across disciplines given his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai followed by a Master’s in Environmental Studies and Resource Management from TERI School of Advanced Studies.

Email: kunal.bharat@giz.de

Shambhavi has been working in the inter-disciplinary field of natural resource management for more than five years. Her work with development cooperation has equipped her with a better understanding of government processes that drive policy interventions. Her core interest includes conservation planning through community engagement, stakeholder management and heritage documentation.

Prior to GIZ, she worked in the Natural Heritage Division of INTACH for projects on wetlands, sustainable agriculture, and nature-culture documentation. She has also previously interned with NITI Aayog and JNCASR. She holds a postgraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a graduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Delhi.

Email: shambhavi.krishna@giz.de

Yaiphaba holds a Master's degree in Environment Management from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and a Bachelor's degree in Physical Science from Hansraj College, University of Delhi. He started his professional journey at Wetlands International South Asia supporting the coordination of the Asian Waterbird Census. He also served as the Assistant Advisor for Asia-Oceania at the Ramsar Convention Secretariat where he gained extensive experience in dealing with intergovernmental processes. And prior to GIZ, he worked with WWF-India as Manager-Wetlands, where he supported the implementation of the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) in India. Yaiphaba is a passionate environment conservation professional and enjoys bird watching.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Suddhabrata did his Masters in Ecology and Environmental Studies from Nalanda University, focusing on Environmental History and Political Ecology. Under the Wetlands project, he will be supporting the Wetlands division of MoEFCC. Previously, he worked with the Access and Benefit Sharing Partnership Project under the GIZ as an Intern. Prior to GIZ he has worked with the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department in Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary and has been involved in grassroot level wetland conservation in North 24 Paraganas, West Bengal. He is keen to apply his socio-cultural understanding of wetland ecosystems in policy processes.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Utkarsh specialises in people-centered domains of capacity-development and project coordination, while holding prior experience in research-oriented roles at TERI and CEEW. Previously, he completed a Master’s Exchange in Environmental Policy at Sciences Po, France, and joined the Mediterranean Alliance for Wetlands at Tour du Valat. At the Mediterranean Alliance, he coordinated an international network of 32 civil society organisations dedicated to wetlands and contributed to the network’s advocacy processes.

His other educational qualifications span across disciplines with a Bachelors in Zoology from Hindu College, University of Delhi, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Liberal Studies—the Young India Fellowship—from Ashoka University.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Sanjay holds a Ph.D. degree in Forestry with specialisation in Landscape Ecology and has an extensive experience of 18 years spanning in the fields of integrated natural resources management (INRM), climate change adaptation, forestry, agroforestry and rural development sectors. He has been involved in designing, management and implementation of various projects in these fields.  He started his profession with NGOs and later worked with research institutions and GIZ. Prior to this GIZ assignment, he has worked with the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) for research management in South Asia.  At ICRAF, he was also leading the Sentinel Landscape project in Western Ghats - which was CGIAR’s (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) flagship programme on Forests Trees and Agroforestry.

Email: sanjay.tomar@giz.de

Satyan, an expert in the field of natural resource management has more than 11 years of experience in various sectors like watersheds, forestry, livelihoods, environment management, and climate change. He holds an M.Phil. degree in Natural Resource Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management. Satyan has worked for DFID funded Forest Sector Reforms Project in Himachal Pradesh.

Email: satyan.chauhan@giz.de

Ritesh Sharma is an Advisor with HP-FES project. He is Masters in Forestry with specialisation in Economics from FRI, Dehradun. He has previously worked with NABARD as Forestry expert and for a UK based development organisation where he coordinated natural resource management based projects. He has research experience with Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. His exposure includes working on biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation as well as application on Environmental economics. Presently he is looking after implementation of Forest Ecosystem service based demonstrations and learning from TEEB India Initiative through PES pilots. He enjoys bird watching and nature photographer in his leisure time.

Email: ritesh.sharma@giz.de

Harish Kumar works as driver for HPFES, Shimla and takes care of some additional responsibilities of assisting in administration work and organising events. Mr. Kumar has prior 8 years’ experience of working with GTZ, Shimla from 2004 to 2011 under WASH and PRI projects. After that he joined Acme d’ ace, an adventure sports company where he handled operations of Himachal region. In his spare time he goes for trekking and hikes.

Email: harish.kumar@giz.de

Jyoti Kashyap holds a Master’s degree in Natural Resources Management from TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi. She is undergoing PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Management from the same University. Since 2013, she is working as a freelancer on projects related to biodiversity conservation and management with different organisations such as IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), GFF (Green Future Foundation) and GIZ. She is specialized in vegetation science and wildlife ecology. She also gives field training about ecology and biodiversity to different groups of people such as local community, corporates and students . Her hobbies are bird and butterfly watching and travelling.

Email: jyoti.kashyap@giz.de

With great love for the field of creative design, Aashima’s interest lies in combining various facets of the traditional world with modern techniques of communication. She has completed her undergraduate degree in Communication Design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kangra. She likes working with different aspects of design like graphics and displays, along with photography, management and advertising. As an intern she worked with the HP-FES project to prepare outreach material for the village communities and photograph the project’s demonstration sites. Prior to GIZ, Aashima interned with NEst by Arpit Agarwal, a lifestyle brand inspired by the culture and crafts of the North-East, at Guwahati (Assam), and at the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Department in the fields of marketing and promotion.

Email: aashima.negi@giz.de

Meenakshi is a graduate in Botany (Hons.) from Gargi College, Delhi University and a post graduate in Forestry from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. She has been working in the field of environment and forestry from past 6 years. Prior to GIZ, she was working in MoEFCC as UNDP Consultant looking after Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements related to Environment. She has also worked with Delhi Forest Department and at Natural Heritage Division of INTACH.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Dr Atul has a doctoral degree in Agricultural Economics with more than 15 years’ post-doctoral experience in project management for projects on agroforestry, agriculture research and development and rural development sector. Prior to GIZ, he worked as a researcher and Project Manager in national and international organisations including National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research Institute (ICAR- NCAP, New Delhi, India), CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research)- ICARDA and CGIAR-World Agroforestry (ICRAF).

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Neha is a Natural Resources Management (NRM) professional with over 11 years of experience working on participatory biodiversity monitoring, management for ecosystem services, climate change adaptation and communication. She holds a master’s degree in NRM from TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi. Prior to GIZ, she was involved in various capacities with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), National University of Singapore (NUS) and Winrock International India. Neha is an avid reader, likes to cook and enjoys weightlifting.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Pradnya is an agriculture engineer. She has completed her B.Tech in Agricultural Engineering and M.Tech in Soil and Water Conservation Engineering from Mahatma Phule Agricultural University, Rahuri. Prior to GIZ, she worked with the Watershed Organization Trust for 3 years. She has worked on development of a mobile application for agro advisories to farmers, training and capacity building of farmers for climate resilient agricultural activities and economics of land degradation. She has also worked on impact assessment of watershed management projects with the help of Remote Sensing and GIS, soil health and GHG emission assessment from agricultural fields.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Dr. Stefanie Preuss holds a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and has worked for more than six years as a research assistant in the Institute for Food Hygiene (University of Leipzig, Germany). She joined GIZ in 2011 and has since held posts in environmental projects in West Africa as well as in South and Central America, where she covered a variety of topics including environmental & biodiversity monitoring, and management of protected areas. In addition, she supported the German Environmental Ministry as Policy Advisor. Currently, she is working as a Senior Advisor and the Team Leader for the project “One Health and Agroecology”.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Vimarsh holds master’s degree in Wildlife Sciences and is currently pursuing his PhD in Wildlife Sciences on landscape level planning for human-wildlife conflict mitigation. He has worked on various in-situ & ex-situ conservation related projects on diseases and injury in urban avifauna, Indian horseshoe crab conservation in coastal villages of Odisha and captive management of the wild animals. He has been working at GIZ since 2018 and was earlier supporting the project on Human Wildlife Conflict Mitigation in India. Currently, he is supporting the One Health and Agroecology project as Forestry & Biodiversity Advisor.

Email: vimarsh.sharma@giz.de

Roshan holds a Master’s degree in Science with Wildlife Management as a major, and is also a registered pharmacist by his undergraduate qualifications. He has worked with multiple Government and Non-government sectors on Wildlife related projects pan India. He was a part of All India Tiger Monitoring Project, Climate Change Cell of Karnataka Forest Department (EMPRI), and has worked in international organizations such as the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), and Global Tiger Forum (GTF). Previously, he was with the Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation project and was the state coordinator for Karnataka and West Bengal. In his free time, Roshan listens to rock and instrumental music and passionately follows all major sporting events.

Email: biodiv.india@giz.de

Dr. Sivaraman Balaji holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, India. He began his career with the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2020 and contributed to the field of HIV, STIs and COVID-19 epidemiology, laboratory networking, and health system strengthening. He has also worked with the National Centre for Disease Control, India where he delivered his expertise in various National Zoonotic Disease Control Programmes towards implementation, inter-sectoral coordination, laboratory strengthening, disease surveillance, diagnostics and capacity building. Since December 2023, he has been an integral part of the IGBP Team. Dr. Balaji aspires to dedicate his career to the betterment of society and promoting healthy living.

Email: bio-div@giz.com

Nidhi holds a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management with over seven years of professional experience in environmental and allied sectors. Prior to joining GIZ, she was associated with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for five years. Her professional experience has shaped her as a convergent thinker with an ability to gather information about topics while reviewing and analysing them to support a solution.

Beyond professional endeavours, Nidhi enjoys photography. She is driven by a desire to capture stories from the field and share them with audiences through narratives. Her other interests include movies and leisurely walks.

Email: bio-div@giz.com

Geetanjali is a Climate Change and Human Health professional with over eight years of experience in public policy, specialising in Epidemiology, Infodemic Management during pandemic preparedness (COVID-19), and Environmental Health issues. She has developed and managed programs at both national and sub-national levels in India. After completing her Master's in Environmental Science from Nalanda University, Geetanjali explored rural India to evaluate the effectiveness of various government programs and the challenges faced by local citizens. Her research has provided insights into finding solutions for developmental challenges at the grassroots level in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, and some parts of Northeast India. In 2020, she joined the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as a consultant for John Snow Inc., where she supported Infodemic Management and Pandemic Preparedness during COVID-19 at COVID War Room.

Email: bio-div@giz.com