Ranjan Panda

Ranjan Kishor Panda, a sociologist by education, has more than three decades of experience facilitating several initiatives – starting from grassroots to national as well as South Asia levels – to promote water, environment and climate change actions/advocacy.  Popularly known as Water Man of Odisha and a Climate Crusader in India, he convenes two active networks: Water Initiatives (WI) and Combat Climate Change Network, India. He is founder & mentor of the #Youth4Water campaign and currently dedicates a lot of time to facilitate river, water, ecology and climate change education and initiatives among the youth.  Ranjan is a senior columnist in various prestigious publications including the Down To Earth, and is an award-winning photographer.  He has been recognised as the Mahanadi River Waterkeeper by the Global Waterkeeper Alliance, USA; a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for Ecological Security and a Steering Group Member of the global Climate Migration and Displacement Platform.  A well-known expert on water and climate change in the nation, Ranjan is regularly invited to speak at universities and other places, including the UN, across the globe. He was awarded by the President of India with the first “Green Hero” by NDTV-TOYOTA. He has got many more awards and recognitions to his credit. 

He has been among the founders of the Climate Journalism Network at OSLO MET University, Norway and currently also serves as a Task Force member there.  In the past, he was invited as a Visiting Guest Faculty to the University of Geneva as well.  Currently, he also serves in the Strategic Academic Advisory Board of the XIM University.  He is committed to the cause of providing climate justice and equal opportunities for the most vulnerable communities to climate and water crises.  Ranjan has been actively engaged with global civil society actions around COP as well.