Anil Kumar Agarwal

Agarwal was born on 23 November 1947 and trained as a mechanical engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, graduating in 1970. He left engineering for science journalism.

Working as a science correspondent for the Hindustan Times, Agarwal reported in 1974 on the Chipko movement in the Himalaya, described by CSE as the first reporting on a people's environmental movement in the developing world.

In 1980 he founded the Centre for Science and Environment. Its State of India's Environment 1982: A Citizens' Report was the first in a series of surveys of environmental conditions across the country, compiled with contributions from citizens and researchers. Later books included Towards Green Villages (1989), a strategy for rural development, and Dying Wisdom (1997), a study of India's traditional water harvesting systems that underpinned CSE's rainwater harvesting campaign.

In 1990 Agarwal and Sunita Narain published an analysis of global warming that introduced the argument for equity between countries in allocating responsibility for emissions, a position that influenced the negotiating stance of the G-77 group of developing nations. In 1992 he launched Down To Earth, a magazine on science and the environment.

Agarwal died on 2 January 2002 at the age of 54, after a long illness with cancer. CSE has since been led by Sunita Narain, and names its training institute, media fellowships and annual dialogues after him.

Agarwal was inducted into the United Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1987. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 1986 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002.[2][3][4]