Vijay Paranjpe

Founder

Founder of Parisar

Vijay Paranjpe is the founder of Parisar [1], an Indian non-profit working on environment and road safety & civic from Pune.

Vijay Paranjpye is an Indian environmental economist and a founder member of Parisar, a Pune environmental organisation formed on 5 June 1981, of which he is president. He is a retired professor of environmental economics from Wadia College, Pune, and is also president of the Gomukh Environmental Trust, an organisation working on water resource management.

Career

Parisar was established on 5 June 1981 by a group that included Paranjpye, then a professor of economics, together with Ravi Bhagwat, Sujit Patwardhan, Vidya Patwardhan, Prakash Gole and Dr Ghare of AFARM. The organisation has worked since on environmental awareness, education and advocacy in Pune, with a particular emphasis on sustainable urban transport. In 1982 Paranjpye was a member of the team that drafted the University Grants Commission's first course in environmental science.

He heads the Gomukh Environmental Trust for Sustainable Development in Pune, which has prepared reports for the Government of Maharashtra on water resources. He has written extensively on rivers, dams and water management: he is the author of High Dams on the Narmada, published by INTACH in New Delhi, and a co-author of Traditional Water Management Systems of India.[2][3][4]

Parisar

Parisar is a Pune-based civil society organisation working since the early 1980s on sustainable urban transport, air quality, heritage conservation and road safety. It publishes research audits and policy recommendations, and partners with the Pune Municipal Corporation and India's National Clean Air Programme.

Parisar reports the following, on its own site:

Performance review of Pune Municipal Corporation's footpath grievance redress system found 114 of 302 filed complaints reached full resolution (Feb–Mar 2026, #MyWalkMyRight campaign)
Audited 35 km of Pune's cycle tracks across 19 roads (Cycle Track Audit Report, 2024–25)
Surveyed 540 women commuters on PMPML bus safety and accessibility in a dedicated study