APJ
Anil Prakash Joshi
Himalayan Environmental studies and conservation Organization (HESCO)
Environmentalist
Description
Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi was born on 6 April 1955 at kotdwar, in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand in a family of farmers. and secured a master's degree in botany and a doctoral degree in ecology. He started his career as a member of faculty at the Kotdwar Government PG College but resigned the job in 1979 and formed a voluntary organization entitled Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conversation Organization (HESCO) and concentrated on need-based science and technology developments and their application for the mountain regions.
Anil Prakash Joshi known as Mountain Man has devoted himself to resource-based rural development for the last 39 years and focus on economic Independence of Rural India through community empowerment. He has authored over 100 research papers and ten books dealing with sustainable development of the Himalayas through various means. As a teacher, he guided twenty Ph.D. students and motivated many more to work in the hill villages to use science and technology to solve the basic needs of the mountain community.
Dr. Anil’s strong belief is utilizing local recourses can only bring sustained economic development in rural India. His slogan “Local need meet locally” was a step to make rural India economically independent. Thus, the development of local resources, upgraded wisdom, and local markets have been his focal approach.
His one of the major contributions has been to rejuvenate streams and springs. His tool to regenerate these water bodies have essentially been through understanding science of Nature. Today hundreds of springs and steams are recharged by various organizations through protocol develop by Dr. Joshi.
Dr. Joshi has also been instrumental in bringing orchard Development in Uttarakhand state. His efforts have brought more than hundreds of villages in Himalayan State to promote fruit belt. His emphasis in this initiative has been to encourage Ecology Inclusive Rural economy.
His limitless efforts to bring Gross Environmental Product (GEP) as an ecological growth measure of the state was accepted by high court. As a result, on 5th June 2021, the Government has accepted the GEP measure in the state. This is the first time in the world when Annual Ecological Growths will be measured parallel with GDP.
Ashoka, the social entrepreneurial network, elected him as their Fellow in 1993. The Indian Science Congress awarded him the Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1999 and The Week magazine selected him as the Man of the Year in 2002.[1] The Government of India included him in the 2006 Republic Day Honours list for the civilian award of the Padma Shri and the same year, he received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for his efforts in the application of science and technology for rural development. He received the Padma Bhushan award, in 2020.
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