Our Team

Nitya is a veterinarian with a specialization in veterinary surgery. She has been working on issues related to development and the environment since 1986. She is one of the founders of Anthra and presently its Director. Her work includes research, training and policy advocacy on different aspects of livestock development especially on systems of health care as well as planning for gender-sensitive and sustainable ways of farming and livestock rearing.

A special focus for her now is pastoral and nomadic communities and the animals they rear. She has significant publications on the themes of livestock development, biodiversity and systems of veterinary medicine. She is the author of the book “Livestock and Livelihoods: The Indian Context” published by Center for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, and Foundation Books, New Delhi.

Nitya loves music and traveling to wide open spaces.

Sangeeta wanted to work with animals when she was young, and was delighted when she was nominated from her village to undergo training as an animal health worker with Anthra.

As an animal health worker she has helped with the documentation and validation of ethno-veterinary remedies and is now actively disseminating and sharing her knowledge on medicinal plants and medicine-making to women in rural areas.

Sangeeta loves to sing and dance and is a very good cook.

Manasi Paranjape has been with Anthra since 2003. She handles accounts and other matters related to finance. When Manasi has a little break from accounts she likes to pen poetry in Marathi.

She is extremely popular with the team and would like to spend more time in the field.

Jitendra Maid is a researcher and a journalist who has worked on social issues for several years. Closely associated with a group called “Garib Dongri Sanghatana” which worked with dam displaced people in the western Ghats he has been helping rural communities fight for their rights . In an attempt to keep the cultural heritage of farming groups alive he has been part of a large project collecting “ovees ” (folk compositions of rural women in Maharashtra ) and transcribing them. Jitendra has been associated with Anthra for several years, assisting in research and documentation, collecting data from the field, writing articles in Marathi for the press, facilitating training programmes and workshops and providing valuable insights into aspects of rural life in Maharashtra. He is happiest in meetings where he can spontaneously burst into songs which share the stories and lives of local communities.