Amitangshu is a critical geographer and specializes in the field of political ecology, focusing on postcolonial nature in South Asia. His work as an academic, writer, and practitioner spans activist networks, philanthropic organisations, and international research institutes.
He worked with adivasi communities in western India on managing village commons, and later co-conceptualised and implemented the Participatory Groundwater Management (PGWM) Programme at Arghyam (an hydrophilanthropic foundation) went on to become India's largest civil society network on groundwater for almost a decade. His research at ICIMOD, Nepal, on how communities forecast floods using local knowledge systems highlighted the need for pluralising knowledge of flood management in Himalayan River basins.
In his writings and research, he explores the ruptured relationship between people and their environment, while documenting sites and struggles where plural knowledge systems and practices reclaim hope for a sustainable future. He has written on water cultures, the climate crisis, and everyday urbanism in The Economist, The Independent, Places Journal, Huffington Post, The Hindu, Khaleej Times, Indian Express, Scroll.in, and The Mint. He completed his PhD. from the University of Edinburgh as a Leverhulme Trust Scholar. He also obtained his MSc in Environment, Culture, and Society from the University of Edinburgh as a Sir Ratan Tata Trust Scholar. He has also been a grant recipient of IJURR Foundation, UK; and Konrad Lorenz Institute, Austria.
Amitangshu is currently the Principal Investigator of the WaterPIP KAN project which is exploring how smallholders can effectively use geospatial data for their irrigation needs, within which he hosts the webinar series “Watering the Margins”. He is an advisor to Digital Climate Futures, a 3 year research project led by Lancaster University and Bath Spa University which explores a decolonial and justice perspective on digitalised climate change adaptation. He is also the coordinator of the Decolonising Science PhD Course at IHE Delft.
Amitangshu’s research interests related to MSc and PhD supervision includes decolonising nature, wetland conservation, urban water, smallholder irrigation and groundwater governance.
Publications
A complete list of publications can be found in Google Scholar.