Claude Alphonso Alvares (born 1947 or 1948) is an Indian

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

based in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. He is the editor of the

Other India Press {{Unreferenced, date=August 2015 Other India Press is a small alternative publishing house and bookstore in Mapusa, Goa, India. It deals mainly in environmental, alternative and Third World books, and sells the same mainly by mail order. Though li ...

and Director of the

Goa Foundation The Goa Foundation is an Indian environmental action group. One of the best known in Goa, it was founded in 1986 by a group of Goan environmentalists each fighting individual environmental battles, the organisation today holds influence with the ...

, an

environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring is the processes and activities that are done to characterize and describe the state of the environment. It is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, and in many circumstances in which human activit ...

action group that has filed successful

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). It refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and demonstrates the availability ...

cases. Alvares is a member of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). He is also a member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on

Hazardous Wastes Hazardous waste is waste that must be handled properly to avoid damaging human health or the environment. Waste can be hazardous because it is toxic, reacts violently with other chemicals, or is corrosive, among other traits. As of 2022, humani ...

constituted by the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

Early life

Alvares was born in

Bombay, Maharashtra Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

Mangalorean Catholic Mangalorean Catholics () are an ethno-religious community of Latin Christians from the Diocese of Mangalore and the erstwhile South Canara area; by the southern coast of present-day Karnataka, India. Contemporary Mangalorean Catholics descend ...

parents. He grew up in Khotachiwadi and attended

St. Xavier's College A multitude of schools and universities have been named after St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Roman Catholic saint and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. This page lists notable educational institutions named after St. Xavier, arranged by country a ...

, where he meet his future wife

Norma Norma may refer to: * Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) ** Norma Lizbeth Ramos, a Mexican bullying victim Astronomy *Norma (constellation) * 555 Norma, a minor asteroid * Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral ...

. In 1976, Alvares completed a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology (), Abbreviation, abbr. TU/e, is a public university, public technical university in the Netherlands, situated in Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its Bachelor of Science, BS ...

. He and his family moved to

in 1977. After starting a short-lived rural development project, Alvares began writing for ''

The Illustrated Weekly of India ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' was an English-language weekly newsmagazine publication in India. It started publication in 1880 (as ''Times of India'' Weekly Edition; later renamed as ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' in 1923) and ceased ...

'' while Norma studied law. She completed her degree in 1985.

Goa Foundation

In 1986, the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

passed the Environmental Protection Act. Together with like-minded Goans, the Alvares founded the

in that same year to increase societal awareness and combat evasion of the new environmental standards. In 1987, the Foundation filed its first

case against sand miners who were causing erosion of the local beaches; represented in court by Adv.

Ferdino Rebello Ferdino Rebello (born 31 August 1949), is an Indian jurist and politician. He is a former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, former judge of the Bombay High Court, and a former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Goa, Daman and Diu. ...

, the Foundation was successful in halting this activity. The Foundation also filed cases against

Ramada Ramada is a large American multinational hotel chain owned by Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. As of December 31, 2022, it operates 851 hotels with 120,344 rooms across 63 countries under the Ramada brand. Name The ''Ramada'' name derives from th ...

and other beach resort developers who were flouting building codes.

Other activism

Alvares has campaigned against

genetically modified crops Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of '' Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...

. His 1986

Illustrated Weekly of India ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' was an English-language weekly newsmagazine publication in India. It started publication in 1880 (as ''Times of India'' Weekly Edition; later renamed as ''The Illustrated Weekly of India'' in 1923) and ceased ...

article "The Great Gene Robbery" criticized the U.S.-funded

International Rice Research Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its w ...

's program to replace indigenous crop varieties with their own less-robust ones. He also opposed

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...

's attempts to market genetically modified versions of vegetables such as

brinjal Eggplant ( US, CA, AU, PH), aubergine ( UK, IE, NZ), brinjal ( IN, SG, MY, ZA, SLE), or baigan ( IN, GY) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit, typic ...

. Alvares founded the Other India Bookstore in

Mapusa Mapusa () is a city in North Goa, India. It is situated 13 km north of the state capital of Panaji. The city is the headquarters of Bardez taluka. It is located on the main highway NH-17, linking Mumbai to Kochi. During Portuguese Indi ...

during the 80's; in 1990, he also founded

to publish books on

organic farming Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...

homeschooling Homeschooling or home schooling (American English), also known as home education or elective home education (EHE) (British English), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted ...

, and the environment.

Personal life

Alvares lives at

Parra Parra (Hebrew language, Hebrew: ''גפן'') is a Spanish, Portuguese, and also Jewish surname, meaning grapevine or Trellis (architecture), trellis, for example, a pergola. It is taken from the word meaning latticework and the vines raised on it ...

with his wife

Norma Alvares Norma Alvares is an Indian lawyer, social worker and environmental activist. Personal life Born in a Goan family, Norma graduated in law from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and entered environmental activism. She is married to Claude Alvares, a ...

, an environmental lawyer whom he married in 1974. The couple have three children, Rahul, Samir and Milind.

Bibliography

Author

* ''Homo faber: technology and culture in India, China and the West from 1500 to the present day'', The Hague

tc. TC, T.C., Tc, Tc, tc, tC, or .tc may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * Theodore "T.C." Calvin, a character on the TV series '' Magnum, P.I.'' and its reboot * Tom Caron, American television host for New England Sports Netw ...

Nijhoff, 1980, New edition: The Hague

Nijhoff, 2007 - Indian edition: ''De-Colonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West: 1492 to the Present Day'', - The Other India Press, Goa, 1991 - Paperback Edition: ''Decolonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1492 to the Present Day'', Apex Press, 3rd edition 1991, *"The Great Gene Robbery", published in the

in 1986. * "Science", in: ''The Development Dictionary'', ed. by

Wolfgang Sachs Wolfgang Sachs (; born 25 November 1946) is a researcher, writer and university teacher in the field of environment, development, and globalization. Biography Sachs studied sociology and Catholic theology in Munich, Tübingen and Berkeley. He ho ...

, London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1992, pp. 219–232 * ''Science, development and violence. the revolt against modernity'', Delhi

Oxford University Press, 1992
"Goa may be worse than Bellary"
''Deccan Herald'', Bangalore, 2 October 2011

Editor

* ''Another Revolution Fails: Investigation into How and Why India's Operation Flood Project Went Off the Rails'', Ajanta Publications 1987, * ''Unwanted guest: Goans v/s Du Pont'', Mapusa: Other India Press, 1991 * (with Merryl Wyn-Davis) ''The Blinded Eye: 500 Years of Christopher Columbus'', Other India Press, 1993 * ''Organic Farming Source Book'', Other India Press, 1996 * ''Fish Curry and Rice - a source book on Goa, its ecology and life-style'', 4. rev. ed., Mapusa: Goa Foundation, 2002, * ''Multiversity: Freeing Children from the Tyranny of Schooling'', Other India Press, 2006,

References

External links

*
Goa Foundation

Other India Bookstore

Multiversity

Green Goa Works

Organic Farming Association of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvares, Claude Living people Writers from Goa Indian non-fiction environmental writers Eindhoven University of Technology alumni Indian editors Indian technology writers 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers Indian botanical writers Year of birth missing (living people)