Our Mission
TO EMPOWER CITIZENS WITH DATA, INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS THAT CAN SAVE RIVERS
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF RIVERS THROUGH DATA
Rivers, the lifeline of our economy and wildlife, are drying up and becoming too polluted. Drought and floods are becoming frequent and more intense. Addressing these challenges involves making sound, data-driven, and evidence-based decisions in the context of a river basin.
By equipping citizens and decision-makers with the right data and information, we can enable sustainable management of river resources, leading to healthier river ecosystems and improved water security for all.
Meet the Team
MEET THE contributers OF PAANI.EARTH
NIRMALA GOWDA
Computer Science Engineer by education and profession, Nirmala last worked for Novartis in the US. Intending to learn and understand environmental issues, she obtained an M.Sc in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco.
She has volunteered with several environmental organizations like Sierra Club (East Bay chapter & San Francisco), Nature Conservancy, Alcoholic Anonymous, Leukaemia and Lymphoma society in San Francisco. After spending more than a decade in the US, she returned to her homeland Bengaluru, intending to work on environmental issues.
She took to farming without chemicals and grows her food and makes her oil. She is always traveling in a bid to understand the state of the environment and connect with farmers and women. She loves to hike and has dedicated her time to working on River Pollution, River rights, and Justice issues in the Cauvery basin as trustee of Bangalore Environment Trust.
Over the past few years, she has authored several articles and reports: My mother is the river. The river is my mother., Bengaluru is hot. Steel flyover will make it hotter, it needs to be dropped, Bellandur Lake reports, BLINDSIDED, Brewing Farmer Crisis in the Byramangala Tank Region.Some coverage in the media: BET seeks policy for maintenance of lakes, Lake-cleaning or throwing muck from here to there?
Nirmala works full-time, pro-bono for Paani Earth.
MADHURI MANDAVA
Madhuri Mandava is an Electronics and Communications Engineer with an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. Her journey toward sustainable living began after reading Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, which sparked her ongoing efforts to reduce consumption and live more consciously, eventually leading her to focus on river conservation.
Three years ago, she co-founded Paani.Earth as a living platform designed to provide data and insights to support river conservation. While she acknowledges that the cleanup of our rivers may extend beyond her lifetime, she believes that Paani.Earth will enable future generations to experience ‘living’ rivers once again..
She is grateful to apply her engineering skills to river conservation, working full-time with Paani.Earth while juggling her time between family and other responsibilities.
Khushbu Birawat
Khushbu is an Environmental Engineer with over 5 years of experience in academia, specialising in teaching subjects such as hydrology, solid waste management, water and wastewater treatment, remote sensing, and GIS to engineering undergraduates. Currently pursuing her PhD in Environmental Engineering, her research focuses on water security and the lakes of Bengaluru.
She has successfully completed two government-funded (ISRO, Govt. of India & VGST, Govt. of Karnataka) water-related research projects. This experience has exposed her to the challenges of data scarcity, gaps in data collection, and limited transparency in data sharing within the environmental sector of the city. The question of “Why is data not available for citizens or researchers?” has consistently driven her to seek solutions.
Over the years, Khushbu’s dedication to conserving the environment has remained steadfast. Her commitment is reflected in her continuous efforts to comprehend critical environmental challenges, propose practical solutions, and actively engage in on-ground projects and site visits.
She is curious, loves to read, and recently started learning Kathak.
Khushbu is full-time Researcher of Paani Earth
Dr. NIDHI PALIWAL
Dentist by education and profession, Dr. Paliwal has practiced dentistry for 15 years in various hospitals including Manipal. Her journey from a humble farming community in Madhya Pradesh to practicing dentistry in Bengaluru, to giving up her career for the environment has been about compassion.
She has witnessed first-hand the livelihood challenges of farmers, the commercial mindset creeping into medical practice, and then the undeniable degradation of rivers and the environment. Seeing frequent fires on Bellandur lake from her balcony, she was shocked that the lake could burn.
To leave a better environment for future generations, she joined Bangalore Environment Trust as a trustee. Since then, she has engaged with the government and communities on industrial pollution and conservation of lakes and rivers. Her relentless pursuit to understand public interest litigations and the functioning of sewage treatment plants is most talked about in the trust.
Always smiling and chirpy, she occasionally attends to her patients and enjoys hiking and gardening.
Over the past few years, she has co-authored several reports: Bellandur Lake reports, BLINDSIDED. Nidhi contributes as time permits.GET INVOLVED
IN BUILDING RIVER BASIN INFORMATION SYSTEM
Get involved in building a sensible and closer to reality river basin information system
- Share data and information with us.
- Volunteer your geospatial skills and subject matter expertise.
- Offer to write content, research and field work.
- Donate to us (paaniearth@gmail.com). we have 80G.
