Network for Conserving Central India
  NCCI is a collaborative platform working across one of India's most significant and underserved conservation landscapes. We bring together researchers, practitioners, grassroots organisations, community partners, and knowledge holders to support conservation, restoration, livelihoods, and landscape-level collaboration.
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Our approach is rooted in jugalbandi — Exploring the duality and the dance of people's livelihoods and ecological integrity in Central India.
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Our work is guided by four principles: embracing nuance, being rooted in place and people, fostering an inclusive network-led approach, and bridging knowledge gaps.
NCCI emerged from the Kanha-Pench Landscape Symposium (KPLS) held in February 2014, born out of a shared desire to create a collaborative platform for exchanging knowledge and resources relevant to conservation and development in the Central Indian Landscape. Members of the network include grassroots non-governmental organizations, researchers, managers, and practitioners working in central India. The network is committed to inclusive participation that adaptively builds priorities based on ground realities and engagement with all actors in this working landscape.Â
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Since 2014, NCCI has adapted as climate change, infrastructure expansion, and local economies in the landscape place ever-changing needs for action-oriented knowledge and inclusive collaborations. Through biennual convenings, partnerships, and roundtables, NCCI has evolved from a platform for sharing information to actively generating and disseminating relevant information based on priorities identified by the network.
What We Do
Agrobiodiversity Roundtables
The recurring convening brings together various actors to discuss, strategise, and take action through thematic working groups on areas allied with millet revival, such as processing technologies, market linkages, and food safety, with particular attention to small millets such as kodo and kutki.Â
Knowledge-to-Action
Working groups aimed at actioning the learnings gathered from on-the-ground surveys and the roundtable into achievable and sustainable steps for furthering a unified agrobiodiversity and livelihoods agenda.Â
Team Members
Ruth DeFries
Founder Director
Dr. Ruth DeFries is a professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University and co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School. Her research focuses on pathways for people and nature to thrive, and she has been connected to the Central Indian landscape for more than fifteen years. She founded and continues to direct the Network for Conserving Central India.
Mansi Monga
Executive Director
Mansi is an Environment and International Development professional with experience spanning education, gender, conservation, sustainable livelihoods, and participatory research and facilitation. As Executive Director of NCCI and lead of its Agrodiversity & Livelihoods Program, she guides the organisation’s strategic vision, partnerships, fundraising, and programmatic direction.
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Her work brings together diverse knowledge systems and stakeholders to translate landscape-level insights into collaborative, context-responsive action. She is also the founder of Eco Mango Consultancy, through which NCCI’s work is implemented and administered, and a certified PoSH and Diversity & Inclusion trainer supporting organisations to build more equitable, inclusive, and respectful workplaces.
Prajakta Hushangabadkar
Network Coordinator
Prajakta is a wildlife biologist with decades of experience in conservation, including extensive work in Central India. At NCCI, she coordinates the network and works with members and partners across programmes, bringing together research, field experience, and conservation practice. Her work includes supporting NCCI’s landscape-level initiatives, knowledge exchange, partnerships, and coordination across the network.
​Prachi Goradia
Communications Officer
Prachi is a communications designer and visual storyteller with over seven years of experience across the social impact and creative sectors. At NCCI, she works on translating complex issues into accessible and engaging content for diverse audiences, drawing on her background in strategic communications, knowledge products, and storytelling.
Vijay Ramteke
Field Operations Coordinator
Vijay Ramteke is the Local Coordinator at NCCI, supporting the Agrodiversity & Livelihoods programme. A conservation practitioner, filmmaker, and co-founder of Paigam Organization, he brings field-based experience and a deep connection with Central Indian landscapes and communities to his work. His interests include biocultural heritage, experiential learning, and community-led conservation.
Creative Credits
Vijay Ramteke
Bhumika Yadav
Past Team Members
