About Organisation

Waatavaran primarily serves tribal communities who have lived in the forests for generations, but do not have the rights to their land. We strive to transform thesevulnerable communities into land secure ones. We create awareness about forest protection and sustainable cultivation practices and assist them to use provisions of the legislation to claim community rights to their forests.

We started by helping two tribal villages in Raigad, Maharashtra claim their land rights under the Forest Right Act. We aim to secure the land rights of one million oppressed and marginalised tribal and forest dwelling communities by 2025 across India. We intend to achieve this through positively engaging with government agencies, community outreach, capacity and leadership building, data collection, mapping of land parcels to generate satellite imagery and inculcating sustainable natural resources management practices.

We have learnt that a well organised and highly disciplined intervention in collaboration with the Government is required to make an impact. Our team now has a rich experience in mass mobilisation at grassroot level, the necessary technical expertise, and have built a strong network on-ground as well as across the administration.

• State: Maharashtra

• City: Mumbai