Meet the Team
Meet the team behind Urban Thottam – Chennai Resilience Centre!
Krishna Mohan Ramachandran
Chief Resilience Officer, Chennai City
Krish was appointed Chief Resilience Officer in July of 2017. He led the development of Chennai’s Resilience Strategy which was launched in June of 2019. The strategy defined specific actions that city governance and other stakeholders could take to address Chennai’s most pressing challenges, thereby building city resilience and paving the way towards an enlightened, just and integrated future.
Krish leads the Chennai Resilience Centre, a unit of Okapi Research & Advisory, fostered by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre (AARFRC) and the Resilient Cities Network (RCN). He is involved with two flagship projects being implemented in the city in collaboration with government, civil society, academia and corporates, ‘Urban Farming’ and ‘Water as Leverage’. Both these projects build the city’s resilience in critical areas — Food & Water Security, Urban Heat Mitigation and Livelihood Generation among the urban poor.
In his previous avatar, Krish spent three decades in advertising, a large part of which was at Ogilvy, where he was President of the Madras and Hyderabad Offices, before retiring as National Head of Training and Talent. In his spare time, Krish writes the occasional song, is a passionate Oarsman and loves retreating to his small organic farm in the Palni Hills.
Dr Parama Roy
Lead Researcher, Advisor
Dr. Parama Roy is trained as an urban geographer. She completed her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is interested in the multifaceted and complex nature of urbanization process and its social and environmental implications. Her work is motivated by principles of socio-environmental justice and sustainable development. Dr. Roy has worked at Georgia State University (USA) and University of Copenhagen (Denmark) before joining Okapi Research & Advisory in Chennai in 2017. She also holds an Adjunct Faculty position at IIT-Madras. She has published widely in international peer reviewed journals like Urban Affairs Review, City, and Geoforum on topics of collaborative planning and community gardening as urban planning strategies.
She joined the Resilient Chennai team in 2018 and helped develop the Chennai Resilience Strategy supported by Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program. This work involved comprehensive research and broad stakeholder engagement across Chennai to identify city’s vulnerabilities specifically in the areas of Water, Disaster, Governance, Vulnerable Communities, and Urbanization. Since the launch of the Chennai City Resilience Strategy in June 2019, Dr. Roy has continued to work with Chennai Resilience Center as a lead researcher and advisor.
Akshaya Ayyangar
Senior Research Associate
Akshaya is a Senior Research Associate at the Chennai Resilience Centre and Okapi Research & Advisory. Akshaya has around eight years of experience in urban development, specifically around water and sanitation, solid waste management, urban resilience and climate change. She has been associated with CRC since 2018, helping to develop the city’s first resilience strategy and now taking the strategy forward. She is interested in the linkages between urbanisation, society and the environment, specifically water, equity and justice issues associated with urban environmental governance and access, inequalities linked to urban heat impact and resilience of urban food systems. Akshaya has Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Bristol, UK.
Contact: akshaya@resilientchennai.com
Ramachandran A
Senior Research Associate
Ramachandran A is a Senior Research Associate at CRC & Okapi, leveraging his expertise in urban planning to drive impactful projects. With over 8 years of combined experience in academia and government, he has honed his skills in interdisciplinary research methodologies. Ram’s interest lies in addressing complex urban challenges, focusing on sustainability, resilience, and inclusive governance. His adeptness in geospatial analysis further enriches his contributions, particularly in unraveling the dynamics of land-use changes, urbanization, and peri-urbanization. Ram holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from School of Architecture & Planning – Anna University, Chennai.
Ayesha Ajmal
Junior Research Associate & Communications Manager
Ayesha, a Junior Research Associate and Communications Manager at CRC & Okapi, brings her expertise in solid waste management and consumer engagement to the organization. Her focus lies in utilizing contemporary communication channels to educate and positively influence consumer behavior and promote awareness about environmental issues, waste management, and accessible sustainable lifestyle changes. Ayesha holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems from Santa Clara University, California.
Rithika Vivek
Junior Research Associate
Rithika is a Junior Research Associate at CRC & Okapi with an interest in the politics that shape urban living. She focuses on climate challenges as inherently social – rooted in the ways access to resources and opportunities is negotiated, bestowed, or withheld through institutional decisions and urban priorities. She is interested in exploring policy design and its implementation as a set of choices, examining how it is experienced and refracted on the ground. She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from Azim Premji University, Bangalore.
Srimathi Balasubramani
Project Coordinator (Part time)
Srimathi is a part-time Project Coordinator at CRC, helping to coordinate between beneficiaries and ensuring that they access nutritious food from their kitchen gardens. Srimathi’s background is in social work which she graduated in. She is very much concerned about working with vulnerable communities and developing sustainably. She is actively trying to avoid using plastics in day-to-day activities and chose to do her internship at ‘Vaanagam-Nammalvar ecological farm’ where she learnt about organic farming and sustainable living. Srimathi has previously worked as a coordinator of a homeless shelter for children typically rescued from the Kodugaiyur dump yard in north Chennai. In her spare time, she works actively to improve rights and living conditions of rag pickers and their children.
Acknowledgements
We extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to all our advisors and consultants, in acknowledgement of their invaluable contributions during the development of the Urban Thottam website.
Expert Consultants
- Mrs. K. Parimala, Sempulam Sustainable Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
- Dr. Vijayalakshmi, Sempulam Sustainable Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
- Mr Subramaniam, Sempulam Sustainable Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
- Mr Alladi Mahadevan, The Organic Farm
- Mr. Karthik, Tamil Nadu Department of Horticulture and Plantation Crops
- Ms. Kalpana, Kalpavriksha Farm
- Dr. Sekar Raghavan, The Rain Centre
Chennai Resilience Centre Associates
- Arjun Bhargava (former Resilience Manager, Chennai Resilience Centre)
- Ramamoorthy, Care Earth Trust
- Rohit M (former Communications Consultant, Chennai Resilience Centre)
- Urmika Venkateshwaran (former intern, Chennai Resilience Centre)
- Aparnaa KK (former intern, Chennai Resilience Centre)
- Sarvesh Ashok
- Dr Jayshree Vencatesan, Care Earth Trust
- Anjana Vencatesan, Care Earth Trust
- Vishnu Priya (former Program Facilitator, Chennai Resilience Centre)
- Nived Dharmaraj
- Kothai Narayanan
- Divya KrishnaMohan
Urban Horticulture Program Consultants
- A. Janakiraman, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation
- Archana M., The Magic Bean
- Archana Stalin, MyHarvest
- Balchand Parayath, Chennai City Connect
- K. Kumar, Parks Department, GCC
- Kavitha Ramakrishnan, The Magic Bean
- L. Krishnamurthy, Resident Welfare rep. Shenoy Nagar, Chennai
- M.V. Ramachandran, Resident Welfare rep. T.Nagar, Chennai
- N. Parasuraman, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation
- N.M. Mythreyan, Indra Gardens
- P. Immanuel, Dep. Director of Horticulture, Chennai
- Priya Gopalen, The Magic Bean
- S. Kasiviswanathan, Parks Department, GCC
- S. Sanjana, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation
- S. Sathyanarayanan, Organic Terrace Garden Family Group
- S. Senthilkumar, TN Corporation for Development of Women
- S. Snekalatha, National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) Chennai
- Satish Menon, Resident, Shenoy Nagar, Chennai
- Sheela Devi, Horticulture Department
- Sivasubramaniam, TN Corporation for Development of Women
- Sriram Gopal, Future Farms
- V. Jayachandran, Parks Department, GCC
- V. Sukumar, Parks Department, GCC
- Yogalakshmi, Indra Gardens
Student Contributors
- Adolfo Castro, Yale-NUS College
- Aneesh J, IIT Madras
- Elankovan Gopal, IIT Madras
- Jin Hee Lee, Yale-NUS College
- Julia Higson, University of British Columbia
- Junior Duplessis, University of British Columbia
- Kareena Mehta, IIT Madras
- Rachel Cheang, University of British Columbia
- Nitish Gera
- Minji Lee
- Jenna Lessans
- Michael Rooney
- Garima Jalota
- Madhuri Kashyap
- Nate Grady
- Sashi Konda
Learn about the Urban Thottam Missions
Gift a Garden Mission
Sponsor a Mobile Vegetable Garden Kit for a vulnerable family in need.
Green Schools Mission
Sponsor the setup & maintenance of a School Farm or an Educational Program for school children.
Greener & Cooler Cities Mission
Set up your own rooftop vegetable garden or nominate your neighbourhood or RWA to participate in the movement.
Green Livelihoods Mission
Sponsor the setup & maintenance of a Community Farm or a Farm Training Program for vulnerable communities.