Parasu Ram Mishra

Parasu Ram Mishra (died 2001) was an Indian soil conservationist and environmentalist, credited with efforts for the transformation of Sukhomajri, a small village in Chandigarh in the valley of Shivalik Hills. He was the head of the Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute (CSWCRTI) at its Chandigarh centre. He was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of the Padma Shri.

Contributions A decade after the Sukhna Lake, conceptualised by Le Corbusier was built, it was detected that sedimentation through the Kansal choe, a seasonal stream, was causing reduction in the depth and size of the lake. In order to find a solution to the problem, CSWCRTI deputed a team in 1975, with Mishra as the project director to Sukhomajri, an arid village at the foothills of Shivalik Hills, in Panchkula district of the Indian state of Haryana. The article was included in the 1988 book, The Greening of aid: sustainable livelihoods in practice, published by IIED. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2000, for his services in the fields of ecology and environment.