Ashish Kothari is a founder-member of the environmental group Kalvapriksh. He has taught at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, served on Greenpeace International’s Board and coordinated India’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan process.

He has been active with various people’s movements and on government committees, including the Committee on Implementation of the Forest Rights Act, the National Wildlife Action Plan committee, the Biological Diversity Act committee. He has authored over thirty books and is the co-author of the book “Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India”, which is a critique of India’s development strategy and argues for a radical ecological democracy based on the principles of environmental sustainability, social equity and livelihood security.