Water activist Ranjan Panda has many accolades to his name for his continuous endeavor towards water conservation along with environmental conservation and climate change advocacy. Popularly known as Waterman of Odisha. Panda has been conferred with the first Green Hero Award by President of India and has three decades of experience in working closely with grasroot communities towards water conservation and climate change.
He also carries out campaign under two active networks Water Initiatives Odisha and Combat Climate Change Network India. He also leads the “Mahandi River Initiative’, ‘Healthy Rivers’, ‘Happy Cities’ and ‘Youth4Water’ campaigns. He is also organiser of the annual Odisha River Conference.
Ranjan Panda at Dharitri Youth conclave 2021
“ People react to big incidents such as cyclone but the constant rise in sea levels which has devastating effects on coastal habitats in the state is usually getting unnoticed”