Claude Alvares Biography 
Claude Alvares is an environmentalist and green activist based in Goa. He currently serves as the Director of the Goa Foundation – a green NGO, and the Editor of the Other India Press. His wife Norma Alvares, an environmental lawyer is a recipient of Padma Shri. Claude Alvares is an author of books - Homo faber: technology and culture in India, China and the West from 1500 to the present day; "Science", in: The Development Dictionary; Science, development and violence the revolt against modernity and Goa may be worse than Bellary. He authored the article 'The Great Gene Robbery', which was published in the Illustrated Weekly of India in the 1980s. He is also a lawyer by profession.
In 2018 his petition in the Supreme Court led to the shutdown of the mining industry in Goa. Ore extraction in all 88 operational mines in Goa was stopped by the apex court. This native lover and green activist has been associated with many such movements in the state of Goa in the recent times. In July 2018, he along with his associate Rahul Basu was arrested for their symbolic protest in Goa. They symbolically locked the offices of the state Mines and Geology Department and were later released.
Goa Foundation is the most well-known of Goa’s environmental action groups founded in 1986. Claude Alvares currently serves as its director. It has been fighting for environment causes for the past three decades or so, and helped the government in shutting down many illegal mines which causes harm to the environment. Conservation of Goa’s natural environment is one of the major aims of this foundation. He is also a member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes.
Published: February 19, 2019
Updated: February 19, 2019
