Ishan Agrawal works with Foundation for Ecological Security, a non-Government organization, functioning in 8 states and 30 districts of India on aspects of eco-restoration, strengthening rural livelihoods, tenurial security over common lands and strengthening of village institutions. He is responsible for operations of the organization in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh and has been a keen contributor to the organization’s overall growth.
He has experience of over 8 years in building community institutions, handholding them in order to bring democratic values and ethos in local institutions. Ishan has a firm belief in collective action and has been trying to channelize collective action for ecological security, which involves mainstreaming of environmental agenda into the agenda of development. Ishan has a passion for Himalayas and forests and within FES, he has been largely contributing to the idea of aligning conservation and livelihood goals.
He is a member of local Advisory Committee for Eco-tourism for Kanha Tiger Reserve as a social scientist. He has represented FES on many academic, civil society or Government forums.
Ishan Agrawal has a post graduate degree in rural management from Institute of Rural management Anand. He has been a recipient of Amul-Tata scholarship at his college which was awarded for merit.
He has a basic degree in life sciences. He has also been a student of Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He had presented papers in various national and international seminars notably, Biennial Conference of International Association for sustaining Commons (IASC), which happened in Hyderabad in 2011. He presented a paper on Commons and Internally displaced persons, which raised issues of tenurial security over commons. His another article Social Science Research in vernacular languages, published in Economic and Political Weekly (August, 2010) discussed a topic which is less discussed but felt by a vast majority of the Indian population.