Krishna Kumar

Environmental and social safeguards practitioner with a statutory accreditation and a delivery record on both sides of the assessment table. Accredited by the Quality Council of India as an EIA Coordinator and as Functional Area Expert for Ecology and Biodiversity, carrying personal accountability for the adequacy of an evidence base before India's regulatory appraisal committees.

Prepared

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments to IFC Performance Standards for hydropower and infrastructure in India and Bhutan, including basin-level Cumulative Impact Assessment built on a counterfactual baseline and attribution across multiple projects. On the financier and client side, commissioned, reviewed and monitored safeguards instruments across a GEF-financed portfolio delivered with India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and UNDP. Practice covers ecological and critical habitat assessment under Performance Standard 6, household socio-economic survey design, community consultation and grievance handling, gender inclusion, and compliance monitoring against donor results frameworks.

Programme Director — Climate Initiatives - TeamLease Foundation and American India Foundation Trust - New Delhi

(2025-05 - 2026-06)

• Aligned programme design with national adaptation policy and international safeguard standards across livelihoods, health and education portfolios.
• Heat resilience in low-income urban and peri-urban settlements — thermal comfort, ventilation and water-use efficiency as measured indicators, with occupational heat exposure protocols for frontline workers.

Deputy Director - Action for Food Production (AFPRO) - New Delhi

(2024-04 - 2025-03)

• Led design of climate adaptation and resilience programming under the 2024–27 National Strategic Plan across 15+ States.
• Established a Research and Training Unit providing method review and technical backstopping to field programmes.

National Project Officer (=Programme Manager) - Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and UNDP India - New Delhi

(2018-07 - 2024-03)

SECURE Himalaya (GEF) and EGREE, Godavari estuary

• Directed delivery end to end — planning, procurement, financial compliance, safeguards, monitoring, evaluation and multilateral donor reporting — across Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Sikkim.
• Held commissioning and review authority for all baseline studies and impact assessments under the portfolio.
• Built and led a 30-member multi-disciplinary team across a national unit and four State units.
• Both programmes closed at "Highly Satisfactory", the highest available independent rating, at terminal evaluation; work cited in India's Third National Communication to the UNFCCC.
• UNDP delegate at UNCCD COP-14 and CMS COP-13; World Bank / GEF Global Wildlife Programme, Bangkok.

General Manager — Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change - IRG Systems South Asia Pvt. Ltd. - National Capital Region

(2007-12 - 2018-07)

the environmental and social due diligence decade

• Ran the environment and natural resources consulting practice: impact assessment, cumulative impact assessment, environmental and social management planning, and regulatory clearance support for infrastructure, hydropower, township and area development projects.
• ESIAs to IFC Performance Standards, including Nikachhu 210 MW hydropower for the Royal Government of Bhutan; engagement with Bhutan's National Environment Commission.
• Himachal Pradesh Environment Master Plan — a 30-year, river-basin-based State plan across 18 sub-sectors including human settlements, industry, transport, water, forests and solid waste.
• Authored the adaptation chapters of the State Action Plans on Climate Change for Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, including vulnerability assessment method.
• Managed multi-disciplinary assessment teams, sub-consultants and NABL-accredited laboratories; quality assurance on data before it entered a report.

Deputy Director, Natural Resource Management - Jal Bhagirathi Foundation and CECOEDECON - Rajasthan

(2004 - 2007)

• Village water governance institutions (Jal Sabhas) and their federations; participatory rural appraisal and community consultation; gender mainstreaming in natural resource governance bodies; drought and dryland livelihoods.

Senior Programme Officer, Forests and Biodiversity - WWF-India - New Delhi

(1996 - 2003)

• Grant appraisal, award and monitoring across 50+ implementing partners; programme engagement in the Eastern Himalaya, Western Ghats and Andaman and Nicobar Islands; contribution to India's National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

Research Fellow - Indian Institute of Public Administration / MoEFCC

• Flora and fauna inventories for 90+ protected areas across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh; co-authored India's first Status Report on Biodiversity Conservation.

Junior Research Fellow - Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change - Andaman and Nicobar Islands

(1990 - 1992)

• Original field research on endemic and threatened species; described a new tree species, Leea adwivedica.

MSc - Botany - Mohanlal Sukhadia University (1989)

BSc - Botany, Chemistry and Zoology - University of Rajasthan (1987)