The Centre for Environment and Law, NUALS organized a special talk by Dr Latha Anantha on the topic ” River Systems and Environmental Issues”. Dr. Latha Anantha is presently the Director of the River Research Centre, Thrissur. She has been a resource person for hundreds of environmental education programs of schools, colleges and Forest Department held nature camps held all over Kerala for the last 15 years. She has conducted training workshops for grama panchayaths, farmers and Agricultural officers on water resources management in Kerala. During the ninth plan period of Kerala from 1996-2001, she was an expert non river basin approach to water management and development in several local self governments (grama panchayaths/ block panchayaths) in Kerala. During 2003 in the Tenth Plan period, she served as a faculty person for the Tribal Sub Plan preparation and training in the tribal panchayaths in Kerala. During 2005 August to March 2006 she was a member of the State level Committee constituted by the Land Revenue Commissioner, Government of Kerala for Amendment to the existing ‘Sand Mining Act 2001’.
She drew upon the deep understanding of complex river basin systems to apply the concept of environmental flows to river basin planning and management in India. She is passionately involved in the Public Interest Litigation and grass roots mass base build up in the Athirappilly dam issue. Using the flow of the river as a reference point, she makes inter-linkages between different interventions and draws various stakeholders together to cohesively plan and manage water resources in order to strengthen the health, economy, and peace of river communities.