Claude Alvares

Claude Alphonso Alvares (born 1947 or 1948) is an Indian environmentalist based in Goa. He was the editor of the Other India Press and Director of the Goa Foundation, an environmental monitoring action group that has filed successful public interest litigation cases. Alvares was a member of the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). He was also a member of the Supreme Court High Level Committee on Hazardous Waste (1997–2000) and the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Wastes constituted by the Supreme Court of India (2000–2007).

Early life Alvares was born in Bombay, Dominion of India to Mangalorean Catholic parents. He grew up in Khotachiwadi and attended St. Xavier's College, where he met his future wife Norma. In 1976, Alvares completed a PhD from the School of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Eindhoven University of Technology. After starting a short-lived rural development project, Alvares began writing for The Illustrated Weekly of India while Norma studied law.

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 case against 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. He also opposed Monsanto's attempts to market genetically modified versions of vegetables such as brinjal.

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. The couple have three sons, Rahul, a herpetologist, Samir, and Milind.