About Us

Abhay Kanvinde is an Interior Designer by profession and has been capturing Pune, it’s people and places for the past several years. He has been photographing the deep, urgent connection of urban citizens with a seemingly polluted river, the myriad livelihoods supported even by an ailing river and the multiple identities of a river for it’s people. He has published photo essays on the Narmada, on 2019 floods in Krishna and Ghataprabha and on the Aghanashini, one India’s last free flowing rivers.

• abhaykanvinde@gmail.com

Akshay Shete is a passionate architect with experience in designing and executing spaces that focus on the principles of sustainability. His philosophy is less is more and that’s exactly what he practices in his professional practice. He has a strong understanding of construction technology, project coordination and management.

• sheteakshay95@gmail.com

Amit Tandon is an architect and an independent consultant working at the intersection of disaster risk reduction, water and settlement planning. He has a keen interest in the subject of water heritage where he likes to explore various rain-water harvesting structures, livelihoods and stories around water. Amit was a member of the Living Waters Museum in 2017 when he produced the film on Pune’s bridges.

• ar.amittandon@gmail.com

An engineer by mistake. Designer by Profession. Artist by Passion.
A visual designer, storyteller and an urban sketcher with 20+ yrs of multidisciplinary creative experience. You will find him proactively dabbling between leading a team, sketching anywhere, talking about the next project and translating ideas into tangible form. He is also actively involved in design education, conducting workshops and modules with many reputed design institutes.

• ashwin@vitamin-d.in

Dr. Avinash Madhale is Programme Coordinator at the Centre for Environmental Education, Pune Regional Cell. He holds a PhD from the University of Pune on the politics of participation. He is interested in understanding various tools and techniques associated with engaging communities in environmental conservation. Avinash has facilitated several multi-stakeholder dialogues and orientation meetings with citizen groups and corporate volunteers as well as the design and development of teacher training modules, textbook analysis tools, and IEC materials. He also provides technical inputs to the Pune Municipal Corporation Environment/Engineering/ Building Depts from time to time.

• avinash.madhale@ceeindia.org

Dr. Disha Chauhan is a neurobiologist, artist and illustrator. Disha developed a close kinship with nature while growing up which drew her into science and the arts. She works with different mediums on various themes with a focus on nature, people and science trying to understand their relationship with each other while telling their stories.

• thevisualstoriesstudio@gmail.com

Minal Sagare is an architect and urban designer having a keen interest in the core questions of architecture, design of human habitation and aesthetics, while she is equally engaged in understanding the multidisciplinary ties of architecture and urban design. Along with her teaching and practice she is involved in several research assignments. Currently she is a program-coordinator of a post-graduate course in Urban Design at VIT’s PVP College of Architecture.

• minalsagare@gmail.com

Dr. Manas Marathe is an architect-urban planner with professional experience of more than 10 years, including 5 years of academic experience at different colleges in Pune. He was a recipient of the prestigious DAAD German academic exchange scholarship in 2011 to pursue Master’s research at TU Darmstadt, Germany. Since 2016, he has been associated with the same university and the group KRITIS for researching critical urban infrastructures, during the completion of his PhD. His areas of research include cultural landscapes, urban infrastructure and traditional water management systems. Currently, he is working as an Associate Professor at VIT’s PVP College of Architecture and is researching Pune’s ancient water structures.

• ar.manasmarathe@gmail.com

Mukta Deodhar is a research associate at the Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation, ATREE, Bangalore. She hails from Pune and is an environmentalist at heart. She holds a Master’s in Hydrogeology from University of Birmingham, UK and has studied geology, sustainability, and urban studies at Fergusson College (Pune), Bhoomi College (Bangalore), and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (Bangalore).

• muktadeodhar@gmail.com

Niranjan Garde completed his post-graduation from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in Advanced Studies in Architecture and his graduation from the B.K.P.S College of Architecture, Pune. He has been involved in architectural consultancy and currently is an Associate Professor at the VIT’s PVP College of Architecture, Pune. His interests touch upon the domain of feelings, culture, memory and how they contribute to the making of an architectural experience or the built environment. He continues to write blogs and contributes to journals pertaining to the built environment.

• niranjangarde@gmail.com

Pallavee Gokhale is a senior doctoral fellow at the Humanities and Social Sciences department at IISER, Pune. Archaeology and geography are the two broad domains which she enjoys the most. Her interest lies in interdisciplinary studies in archaeology, those involving spatial analysis, artifact typologies, and cultural interpretation. Reconstructing and visualizing Pune’s historic water supply system is based on her MA dissertation at Deccan College, Pune.

• pallavee.gokhale@students.iiserpune.ac.in

A passionate artist, designer and day dreamer who loves explorations and experimentation. With 20+ years of dabbling in the creative field as a designer, art director and mentor, he is also the co-founder of Studio Vitamin D, Pune. When not designing, he prefers the quiet of his studio surrounded by brushes, paper and paints.

• parag@vitamin-d.in

Prajakta Divekar is a senior doctoral fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at IISER, Pune. Her research interests are in the interdisciplinary field of critical heritage studies. For over a decade she has been involved with heritage management and advocacy in Pune city. Her projects include the national award-winning Pune Heritage Walk

• prajakta.divekar@students.iiserpune.ac.in

Rahul Iyer is an early-career science communicator having trained and worked at the Science Media Centre (SMC), IISER Pune. He joined the SMC as an intern in 2019 after graduating with a BS-MS degree from IISER Pune. Here, he discovered the world of science multimedia production and directed an award-winning documentary ‘The Trials and Triumphs of G N Ramachandran’.

• r.iyr.gen@gmail.com

Saili K. Palande-Datar is an Indologist, historian and ecologist, by training. She has been researching Pune’s history and culture for the last 18 years and has been involved with several environmental movements for saving the city’s natural and cultural heritage. As an art historian, she has explored and documented various traditional water management systems at forts, caves, temples and heritage precincts in Maharashtra.She is interested in looking at eco-cultural connections and notions related to natural resources including water.

• sailikdatar@gmail.com

Dr. Sanskriti Menon is Senior Programme Director, Centre for Environment Education, Pune. She anchors CEE’s Urban Programmes and is involved in a range of urban issues including mobility, waste, ecosystems, and climate change. She also leads the CEE Coast and Marine Programme and the CEE Central Regional Cell. She is particularly interested in Education for Sustainable Development, and collaborative governance systems to address sustainability issues. Sanskriti has Masters degrees in Museum Studies, and Sustainable Development. Her doctoral research was on deliberative democracy. She has been working with CEE for over three decades. She is also a member of the ESD Expert Net and on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Environmental Education, Denmark.

• sanskriti.menon@ceeindia.org

Sanskruti Marathe works with the CEE Pune office as a Programme Officer. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Science. She has co-authored scientific papers as well as written articles for national and international magazines. Her interests lie in working closely with schools and colleges to raise awareness about the relationship between people and planet, and how human activities are altering the quality of life and what could possibly be done at an individual level that would lead to conservation actions.

• sanskruti.marathe@ceeindia.org

Shailaja Deshpande has an interdisciplinary diploma in Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Nature Conservation from the Ecological Society, Pune. She has a diploma in Field Botany from Agharkar Research Institute and also in Groundwater and Watershed Management from ACWADAM. She is the Founder and Director of Jeevitnadi-Living River Foundation. She is also a founder member of the Ramnadi Restoration Mission. Shailaja has been practicing a toxin free lifestyle at her own home for the last eight years. Rivers are her passion and working for them is her ultimate goal.

• shailajadesh@gmail.com

Swapna Joshi is a doctoral student in the Humanities and Social Sciences department at IISER, Pune. She holds a Master’s degree in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology from Deccan College, Pune. Her research interests include architectural-art history, temple studies and medieval archaeology. As a Sahapedia UNESCO Project Fellow (2017-18), she undertook an audio-visual project that focussed on the pyaavs of Mumbai. Swapna’s work on pyaavs also featured in Mumbai Water Narratives -Confluence supported by the Living Waters Museum.

• swapna.joshi@students.iiserpune.ac.in

Prof. Vijaya Srinivisan is an architect and academic with over 30 years of experience. She has taught subjects relating to design and technology at institutions in Mumbai and Pune, and has mentored several graduate students. She regularly presents her work at research forums and has been a jury member at several colleges. In her practice, Vijaya works closely with her clients, channeling their lives and experiences in her designs. Vijaya favours a multidisciplinary approach to architecture, which she feels enriches it as a discipline. She loves to read and listen to Hindustani classical music.

• jivirs@gmail.com

Jeevitnadi is a group of individuals from diverse professional fields who are passionate about environmental conservation. The mission of reviving rivers is the drive for all their actions. They believe that ‘River is ours and it is our responsibility to take care of it’.
Raising public awareness and participation, eliminating the causes of pollution through a toxic free lifestyle, developing scientific and ecological management plans for revival of rivers and its sustainability are their tools in achieving this vision. Shailaja Deshpande, Manish Ghorpade, Kirti Wani, Sanjeev Naik and Shubha Kulkarni have contributed to the content of this exhibition.

• www.jeevitnadi.org

The Centre for Environment Education is a national institution engaged in strengthening environmental education and training initiatives by developing pioneering programs that promote environmentally ethical behaviour. Amongst other things, CEE has been conducting nature trails, has developed a nature interpretation centre, facilitated studies and multi-stakeholder discussions, and seeks to integrate education as a key driver for conservation and eco-restoration of Ramnadi and Pashan Lake.

• www.ceeindia.org

Maay Marathi Mandal is a students’ club at IISER, Pune, which aims to promote the Marathi language and culture. Members organise events including their flagship event Omkarotsav, colloquial Marathi classes, literature meets, informal talk shows, poetry nights, and several other activities and competitions. A few members of the club have assisted in translating some of the content to Marathi.