Welcome – Benedict Paramanand, Founder, Greenlitfest

Inauguration – John Elkington, Author, Advisor, Entrepreneur

John Elkington, author of The Green Swan: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism. He is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable capitalism, a bestselling author and a serial entrepreneur.

With Santhosh Jayaram, Global Head – Sustainability, HCL Technologies Limited. He is the author of Still Speaking – Volume 1 – Lockdown Days and Still Speaking – Volume  2 – Garden Chronicles

by R Gopalakrishnan, author of The Case of the Bonsai Manager – Lessons For Managers on Intuition

Mukund Govind Rajan, author of OUTLAST – How ESG Can Benefit Your Business, a pioneering Indian business leader in ESG investing

With Padmini Srinivasan, Associate Professor, Finance & Accounting, Chairperson, Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. She has varied professional interests in teaching, research and consulting in the areas of Financial Reporting,  Management Accounting,  Corporate Governance and Accountability

Jury Remarks – Ajay Poddar, MD, Syenergy Environics Ltd

Chat with Winners – Roselin Minj, Lead (Partnerships) –  Sustainable Cities, World Resources Institute India

The Phoenix of the North East: Amur Falcons

Galathea Bay: Will the World’s Largest Sea Turtle return to nest in India?

When a Leopard Hunts, the Jungle Grapevine Buzzes

Globe Skimmer: The Dragonfly that Flies from India to Africa

Murali Sivaramakrishnan dons several hats as a poet, artist, author, critic, academician and founder President of ASLE India (Association for the Study of Literature and Environment). He’s written several critical essays, published volumes of poetry, over 100 research papers and held 15 solo exhibitions of his artwork. The common thread of nature remains the muse in all his works.

In conversation with Hariharan Chandrashekhar, an environmental economist, entrepreneur, green business mentor, writer, policy advocate, urban analyst and one of the most awarded realtor CEOs with over 50 awards from four continents and nine nations. Founder chairman of Biodiversity Conservation India Limited and founder of BCIL AltTech Foundation working on zero-energy development strategies for buildings with freedom from the grid for energy, water and waste.

Chen Qiufan a.k.a. Stanley Chan is an award-winning Chinese speculative fiction author of acclaimed eco-techno-thriller Waste Tide, translator, creative producer and curator. Founder of Thema Mundi Studio. Honorary President of Chinese Science Fiction Writers Association.

Bijal Vachharajani is a certified Climate ‘Worrier’, editor at Pratham Books, and author of award-winning children’s books including A Cloud Called Bhura and Savi and the Memory Keeper.

Atulya Misra is a senior IAS officer, Additional Chief Secretary (Tamil Nadu Government), and author of Oxygen Manifesto and Vultures of Paradise.

In conversation with Rajat Chaudhuri, bilingual writer, columnist, editor and co-editor of speculative and solar punk stories and author of several books, including The Butterfly Effect. Book Riot listed the book among the ‘Fifty must read eco-disasters in fiction’ and also ‘Ten works of environmental literature from around the world’. He has advocated climate issues at UN, New York, been a Charles Wallace Creative Writing Fellow, a Hawthornden Castle Fellow, Korean Arts Council Fellow-InKo and a past resident of the Sangam House International Writers Residency.

Shekhar Pathak is a writer, academician, founder of PAHAR (People’s Association for Himalaya Area Research) and a quintessential historian-as-fieldworker, who has authored ‘The Chipko Movement: A People’s History‘ after having lived in many valleys, studied several landscapes where the Chipko protests took place and spoken at length with protesters and communities.

In conversation with Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament, Former Minister of Environment and Forest and author of Green Signals: Ecology, Growth, and Democracy in India, Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature, and The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined The Buddha.

Jairam Ramesh, Member of Parliament, Former Minister of Environment and Forest, Prolific Author

Neha Dara, Business Head, RoundGlass Sustain

Norma Alvares, is an environmentalist, lawyer, social worker, founding member of Goa Foundation, founder trustee and chairperson of FIAPO, founder of Other India Book Store and Other India Press. She has argued around 300 PIL cases for Goa’s NGOs and citizen groups.

Zai Whitaker, Acclaimed Naturalist, Educator and Writer

An educationist and storyteller at heart, Radhika Suri is the Director of Environment Education at WWF India. From urban areas to the remotest parts of India, WWFs standardized education programs, designed under her leadership, continue to have an impact on the lives of over 500,000 children and youth every year. A true believer in the power of books and stories as teaching tools, she has focused on expanding WWFs publication repository to include engaging and creative books, guides, manuals and more for teachers, students and youth.

A passionate educator for over two decades, Neha is an Education Specialist: Content & Training at WWF-India. She joined the organisation in 2015 and has made significant contributions to its vision for environment education by building and executing its strategy for promoting green literature and engaging with a variety of stakeholders, especially students, educators and school heads of government and private schools across the country.

English zoologist and children’s author, Nicola Davies has been writing books set in the natural world since the 1990s. She has written over 60 children’s books in her long career and was also a presenter at the BBC’s popular children’s wildlife programme that began in the 1980s and ended in 2006. Her latest book, The Song that Sings Us is an epic environmental adventure novel published by Firefly Press in October this year.

One of India’s foremost children’s book curators, Vidya Mani was the managing editor of the children’s book review site Goodbooks, and helped institute The Hindu Young World-Goodbooks Awards for children’s books. She runs a content and design studio called Melting Pot that creates children’s books and magazines for publishers and NGOs, and is a founder-member of Funky Rainbow, a travelling bookshop and book consultancy.

Nine-year-old Arunima Ghosh is a student at the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad. She loves music, art, reading books, writing and playing with her pup, Jasmine. For the last two years, she has been running a reading club called ‘Book Club Buddies’.

Twelve-year-old Ragavan Balaji is a student at the Bombay International School. He loves to discover the how and why of the world and dreams of becoming an inventor one day. He enjoys reading, Minecraft and long swims.

Fourteen-year-old Celesta Fernandes lives in Goa and studies at the Sharada Mandir school. She loves to read and write stories.

In conversation with 23-year-old Tamanna Sengupta, an environmental enthusiast and science aficionado who works in the non-profit space and seeks to take scientific knowledge of climate change and action to the wider public, allowing them to understand the intricacies of the crisis better and, as a result, demand appropriate action from authorities.

Archana Atri, Jury Moderator
A champion of Indian children’s literature, Archana Atri began one of the first indie book clubs – AA’s Book Nerds – for children in the NCR, to encourage them to read books in an unconstrained manner.

Ridhima Pandey, Young Climate Activist
Often likened to Greta Thunberg, 14-year-old Ridhima Pandey from Uttarakhand has been fighting for climate action since she was nine. In 2020, the BBC included her on its list of 100 inspiring and influential women.