About Baitarani Initiative

Registered under Trust Act, vide the Registration No BBSR/IV/688/2010 Dt. 31st March 2010 but informally operational since 2006.

Our Approach

Baitarani Initiative is an attempt to optimize use of knowledge, research, and innovation in the development process. It is an engagement of young and qualified professionals with various development stakeholders at different levels and across disciplines of environment and development, towards appropriate management and democratic governance of natural resources especially that of Water, Forest, Land and Farming Systems for augmenting dignified, peaceful and sustainable livelihoods support to marginalized and disadvantaged communities and groups across the country. This civil society initiative has emerged from an action research project in 2006, which for the first time in India tried to proactively explore options for futuristic and inclusive resources management in a river basin of Odisha (www.baitaraniinitiative.org). It was premised on following a holistic approach by connecting basin stakeholders’ across space and time to address their livelihood concerns for the present and future, across the basin landscape.

Poor and marginal communities globally are faced with a herculean task to sustainably and equitably govern/manage their natural resources and sustain their ecosystems and livelihoods in the wake of ongoing development trajectories along with climate change. They along with the state and other development stakeholders are in search of options to prevent, mitigate and adapt to increasing risks and vulnerabilities of the environment and communities. At this cross-road, Baitarani Initiative is a proactive attempt to provide a civil society platform for carrying out collaborative and participatory, interdisciplinary action and policy research to generate ‘research and evidence-based information’ to strengthen and aid stakeholder-inclusive development processes.

Functional Area Map

Thematic Themes

Socio-ecological livelihood

  • Sustainable agriculture.
  • Community based forestry.
  • Medicinal Plant.
  • Agro forestry.

Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Governance

  • Biodiversity conservation.
  • Watershed Management.
  • Community Based forestry.
  • River Basin Management.
  • Climate Change and Interdisciplinary Development.
  • Medicinal Plant.