About Us

Core Team & Programme Managers
Dr. Archana Godbole Dr. Godbole is the founder Director of AERF and has more than 15 years of experience in the field of conservation and natural resource management. She was recently awarded the Whitley Associate Award for her long term work on sacred groves. Under her able guidance, AERF has completed a number of research and implementation projects, contributing to the objectives of AERF and to the process of biodiversity conservation.
Mr Jayant Sarnaik An innovative Enviropreneur and conservation practitioner, Mr. Sarnaik has over 13 years of experience in project concept formulation, detailed project preparation, fund raising, and planning, facilitation and capacity building for various participatory conservation related projects. Currently serving as Deputy Director at AERF, Mr. Sarnaik has received the Conservation and Sustainability fellowship from Alcoa Foundation, USA last year. Conceptualization and execution of demonstration projects in renewable energy sector for its wider acceptance is his new focus area.
Mr Sameer Punde Sameer is a qualified conservation biologist from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent. He currently runs research and community projects in AERF. His experience lies in forest ecology and conservation and is currently developing incentive based mechanisms for private forests. Sameer won a Future Conservationist Award in 2007 for a community based project in the north Western Ghats.

Project Team

Programme Officers

Mr. Hemant Angarkar
Hemant joined us AERf as a Field Researcher recently after completion of his masters in Environmental Science from Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune University. Hemant did his summer training at AERF where he focussed upon energy profiling of rural communities of Karjat block in Raigad district. He has completed his dissertation on Underutilized biodiesel yielding species, Madhuca indica, Pongamia pinnata in Mangaon (Raigad District) and Shahapur (Thane district). His interest lies in biofuels & alternative energy.

Field Team

Field Operatives
Mr. Sanjay Pashte: Sanjay is the team field assistant based in the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra. He holds a diploma in agriculture and is responsible for the day-to-day activities at the project sites including the setting-up of plant nurseries and restoration of sacred groves.
Mr. Bharat Dalvi Bharat is from the Velhe block of Pune district. He drives the AERF field vehicle as well as assists in various field based activities and data collection. Bharat has extensive knowledge regarding the local names and medicinal uses of plants found throughout the north Western Ghats
Mr. Kailas Gawand Kailas Goawand looks into the community mobilization and other field based activities for the Energy Projet of AERF. He is based in our Alibaug field station.

Scholar Affiliates

Kiran Purandare An exceptional naturalist, a writer, an ornithologist, an educator and a conservationist at heart. Kiran Purandare needs no introduction in Mahrashtra. For over a decade he continues to inspire thousands of people through his writings, educational tours and shows mimicking bird calls and promoting conservation. He has lead a number of campaigns and events in environment education and awareness generation for the urban and rural youth alike. Mr. Purandare is associated with the AERF in identifying conservation problems on the ground and developing practical solutions.
Vikas Nishpad-Desai Has been associated with the AERF since its inception in 1994. He is an expert horticulturist with extensive experience in large-scale land management and agro-foresty based projects
Shruti Barve A proficient Architect with an extensive experience with various distinguished consultancies currently is working with AERF for the development of Biodiversity Park in Padubidri. Her expertise along with the AERF team members is being involved in the structural designing of the park.

Administrative Team

Administrative Staff
Mr. Bhalchandra Wadke: Bhalchandra provides administrative support to the AERF research team and project work. He assists in managing the accounts as well as the various day-to-day activities at the AERF office at Pune.
Mr. Kamlesh Modak Mr. Modak is in charge of handling accounts for the organization. He works part-time with the AERF

AERF Advisory Board

Dr. P.M. Bhargava The founder-director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Dr Bhargava has headed several organisations specialising in DNA fingerprinting. He is a recipient of the Padmabhushan and the French government's Legion d'Honneur. Dr. Bhargava is widely regarded as the architect of modern biology and biotechnology in India. He is the vice chairman of the National Knowledge Commission of India.
Prof. P. S. Ramakrishnan P.S. Ramakrishnan, Founder Director, G. B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development, and Professor of Botany/Eco-Development, North Eastern Hill University, is currently attached with the School of Environmental Sciences, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, as a U.G.C. Emeritus Professor . He has received much national and international recognition, including fellowships of learned academies in India and the Third World Academy of Sciences, and the Honorary Fellowship of the International Association of Tropical Biology (ATB), based in USA.
Dr. P. Pushpangadan Dr Pushpangadan, former director of the Tropical Botanical Garden & Research Institute (TBGRI), Kerala, and now the director of the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, and Kani tribal leader Kuttimathen Kani, received the United Nations Equator Initiative Prize 2002 at the Earth Summit held in Johannesburg recently. They won the award for the innovative Kerala Tribal Project on Ethnomedicine. At present he is with Amity Institute for Herbal and Biotech Products Development , Kerala.
Mr. A.M. Gokhale Recipient of Padmashri for his outstanding work on traditional of Village Development Councils in Nagaland, this former Chief secretary of Nagaland has coordinated a participatory resource enhancement project, the Nagaland Environmental Protection and Economic Development, through People’s action ( NEPED ), since 1995 in Nagaland. A keen plant photographer and a taxonomist, Mr. Gokhale also served as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) and as the Chief Secretary at the Ministry of Non Conventional Energy ( MNES) . At present he is the Special Adviser to the Planning Commission for North East region.
Dr. Govindasamy Agoramoorthy Professor Agoramoorthy, a world renowned primatologist has been guiding Officials, technical and research staff members for over 25 years in the field of ecology. He currently teaches at College of Environmental Sciences in Tajen University in Taiwan. He has served in various global environmental conservation organizations. His research and conservation activities are spread across the globe including India, Liberia, USA, Venezuela, Taiwan, Trinidad, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Peru, Brazil and China. He has been awarded with numerous awards and memberships including best scientist award, National Environmental Science Academy (2007)
Dr. Alan Hamilton Alan Hamilton, PhD, ScD, FLS, has been in professional conservation and has also worked as university lecturer in the UK and Uganda for many years. His research speciality is the history of climate, forests and land use in central Africa. He was a founder of the People and Plants Initiative, a joint programme of WWF, UNESCO and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, designed to raise global capacity in applied ethnobotany (ethnobotany applied to conservation and sustainable use of plant resources). From 2005 to 2008 he was employed by Plantlife International to manage its Plant Conservation and Livelihoods Programme, which concentrated on support for community-based conservation of medicinal plants in East Africa and the Himalayas. In 2009, Alan was made an Honorary Professor in the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences in recognition of his collaboration on conservation with Chinese scientists.