->SdkbBot at 01:57, 5 January 2022

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{{Short description|Indian environmentalist}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Claude Alvares
| image = File:claudealvares.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = 
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], [[Maharashtra]], India
| death_date = 
| death_place =
| nationality = {{flag|India}}
| other_names =
| occupation = [[Environmentalist]], [[Author]], [[Editor]]
| known_for = Editor of the [[Other India Press]]
}}
'''Claude Alphonso Alvares''' is an Indian [[environmentalist]] based in [[Goa]]. Alvares is the editor of the [[Other India Press]]<ref name="About Us">{{cite web|date=2015|title=About Us|url=http://www.otherindiabookstore.com/about.jsp|publisher=Other India Book Store|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref> and Director of the [[Goa Foundation]], an environmental monitoring action group that has filed successful [[Public interest litigation in India|public interest litigation]] cases.<ref name="Goa Foundation">{{cite web|date=2015|title=Goa Foundation|url=http://goafoundation.org/|publisher=Goa Foundation|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref>

Alvares is a member of the [[Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority]] of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).<ref name="India Inspires">{{cite web|date=2015|title=Speaker: Claude Alvares|url=http://www.indiainspires.org/speakers/7|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226212733/http://indiainspires.org/speakers/7|archive-date=26 February 2015|website=India Inspires|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref> He is also a member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on [[Hazardous Wastes]] constituted by the [[Supreme Court of India]].<ref name="Green Goa Works">{{cite web|date=2015|title=Green Goa Works|url=http://www.greengoaworks.in/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119063934/http://www.greengoaworks.in/|archive-date=19 January 2015|publisher=Green Goa Works|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Alvares was born in [[Mumbai|Bombay]] to [[Mangalorean Catholic]] parents.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Alvares|first=Claude Alphonso|title=Homo Faber : Technology and Culture in India, China and the West 1500-1972|publisher=[[Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven]]|year=1976|location=Eindhoven|type=Thesis|doi=10.6100/IR68612|doi-access=free}}</ref> He grew up in [[Khotachiwadi]] and attended [[St. Xavier's College, Mumbai|St. Xavier's College]], where he meet his future wife [[Norma Alvares|Norma]].<ref name="Livemint">{{cite web|last=Menezes|first=Vivek|date=9 August 2014|title=Norma Alvares & Claude Alvares {{!}} The power of two|url=http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/1P5V4SptPe1ZwGUQEi1zYL/Norma-Alvares--Claude-Alvares--The-power-of-two.html|url-status=live|website=Livemint|accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref> In 1976, Alvares completed a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] from the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the [[Eindhoven University of Technology]].<ref name=":0" /> He and his family moved to [[Goa]] in 1977.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Alvares|first=Claude|date=November 2008|title=Ecological Traditions Of Goa|url=https://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~damani/ctaraReading/ClaudeEcology.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> After starting a short-lived rural development project, Alvares began writing for [[The Illustrated Weekly of India]] while Norma studied law.<ref name="Livemint" /> She completed her degree in 1985.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Wangchuk|first=Rinchen Norbu|date=2019-05-21|title=30 Years, 100+ Legal Battles: Meet The Couple Standing Against Ecological Damage in Goa|url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/183016/goa-mining-mafia-supreme-court-ban-norma-claude-alvares-environment/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-23|website=The Better India|language=en-US}}</ref>

== Goa Foundation ==
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 in India|public interest litigation]] case against [[Sand mining|sand miners]] who were causing erosion of the local beaches; represented in court by Adv. [[Ferdino Rebello]], the Foundation was successful in halting this activity. The Foundation also filed cases against [[Ramada]] and other beach resort developers who were flouting building codes.<ref name=":1" />

== Other activism ==
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 own less-robust ones.<ref name="The Great Gene Robbery">{{cite journal|author=Claude Alvares|date=March 1986|title=The Great Gene Robbery|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/118909028/The-Great-Gene-Robbery-by-Claude-Alvares#scribd|journal=Illustrated Weekly of India}}</ref> He also opposed [[Monsanto]]'s attempts to market genetically-modified versions of vegetables such as [[Eggplant|brinjal]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-02-04|title=Delicious Udupi Gulla threatened by Bt brinjal|url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/50845/delicious-udupi-gulla-threatened-bt.html|access-date=2021-04-23|website=Deccan Herald|language=en}}</ref>

Alvares founded the Other India Bookstore in [[Mapusa]] during the 80's; in 1990, he also founded [[Other India Press]] to publish books on [[organic farming]], [[homeschooling]], and the environment.<ref name="Livemint" />

== Personal life ==
Alvares lives at [[Parra, Goa|Parra]], [[Goa]] with his wife [[Padma Sri]] [[Norma Alvares]], an environmental lawyer and their three children,<ref name="Livemint" /> Rahul, Samir and Milind.<ref name="India Inspires" />

==Writings==
===Author===
* ''Homo faber: technology and culture in India, China and the West from 1500 to the present day'', The Hague [etc.]: Nijhoff, 1980, New edition: The Hague [etc.]: 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, {{ISBN|0-945257-40-6}}
*"The Great Gene Robbery", published in the [[Illustrated Weekly of India]] in 1986.<ref name="The Great Gene Robbery" />
* "Science", in: ''The Development Dictionary'', ed. by [[Wolfgang Sachs]], London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1992, pp. 219–232
* ''Science, development and violence. the revolt against modernity'', Delhi [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1992
* [http://www.deccanherald.com/content/195089/goa-may-worse-bellary.html "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, {{ISBN|81-202-0118-3}}
* ''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, {{ISBN|81-85569-48-7}}
* ''Multiversity: Freeing Children from the Tyranny of Schooling'', Other India Press, 2006, {{ISBN|81-85569-64-9}}

==See also==
* [[Science and technology studies in India]]

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
* {{Official|www.typewriterguerilla.com}}
* [http://www.goafoundation.org Goa Foundation]
* [http://www.otherindiabookstore.com/ Other India Bookstore]
* [http://www.multiworldindia.org Multiversity]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150119063934/http://www.greengoaworks.in/ Green Goa Works]
* [http://www.ofai.org/ Organic Farming Association of India]

{{Authority control}}

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

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{{environmentalist-stub}}

Claude Alvares - Revision history

->SdkbBot at 01:57, 5 January 2022