Claude Alphonso Alvares is an Indian environmentalist based in Goa. Alvares is the editor of the Other India Press and Director of the Goa Foundation, an environmental monitoring action group that has filed successful public interest litigation cases.
Alvares is a Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) member. He is also a member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes , which is constituted by the Supreme Court of India.
Alvares was born in Bombay to Mangalorean Catholic parents. He grew up in Khotachiwadi and attended St. Xavier's College. In 1976, Alvares completed a PhD from the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He and his family moved to Goa in 1977. After starting a short-lived rural development project, Alvares began writing for The Illustrated Weekly of India. In 1986, the Parliament of India passed the Environmental Protection Act. Together with like-minded Goans, the Alvares founded the Goa Foundation in that same year to increase societal awareness and combat evasion of the new environmental standards. In 1987, the Foundation filed its first public interest litigation case against sand miners who were causing erosion of the local beaches, the Foundation was successful in halting this activity. The Foundation also filed cases against other beach resort developers flouting building codes.
Alvares has campaigned against genetically modified crops. His 1986 Illustrated Weekly of India article "The Great Gene Robbery" criticized the U.S.-funded International Rice Research Institute's program to replace indigenous crop varieties with their less robust ones. He also opposed Monsanto's attempts to market genetically modified versions of vegetables such as brinjal. Alvares founded the Other India Bookstore during the 80's; in 1990, he also founded Other India Press to publish books on organic farming, homeschooling, and the environment. Alvares lives at Parra, Goa.* (Collected from the public domain) UPDATED ON 08/10/2024
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