Anita Varghese, PhD, Director – Keystone Foundation
The forest fires project which is collaboration between Environmental Defense Fund and Keystone Foundation has been ongoing since August 2025. Anita Varghese represented Keystone at the London Climate Action Week as part of the EDF led panel on wildfire resilience in tropical forests. This was held on 25th of June at the Queen Mary University of London.
Edgar Godoy of EDF moderated the discussion, which featured engaging conversations with Manjusha Mukherjee (EDF), Ane Alencar (IPAM), Janet Smith (CTrees), Supriya Sahu (Tamil Nadu Government), and Anita Varghese (Keystone Foundation)
We discussed the need for a better understanding of tropical forest fires. Most global information on forest fires comes from temperate regions. Most countries use advanced satellite technologies for real-time fire alerts and accurate location information. Combining this information with Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ fire knowledge can improve wildfire prediction and prevention. It can also strengthen the control of large unregulated fires. The audience raised questions about community participation, advanced geospatial technologies, and participatory models for wildfire resilience.
A few days later, we met again in Bhopal to discuss EDF’s forest strategy for India. During the discussions, Pratim Roy presented scenarios from the Nilgiris. Anita Varghese and Pralhad Burli presented preliminary results of the forest fires project. The team will soon submit a report to EDF covering work in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Central India
The forest fires project is now moving to the next phase of a three year partnership with EDF, IIT Madras and Ctrees with the support of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. While in Bhopal Keystone and EDF team met with senior faculty of the Indian Institute of Forest Management to find ways to collaborate on the topic of forest fires, especially in the area of knowledge sharing.
