M. K. Prasad

Professor M. K. Prasad (Malayalam: പ്രൊഫസര്‍ എം.കെ. പ്രസാദ്‌) is one of India’s best known evangelists for sane environmental management and the harnessing of technology for empowering those on the wrong side of the so-called ‘digital divide’.
Biography.
A biologist by qualification (with a master's degree in Botany), Prasad spend over 30 years in the academic arena holding various positions in the Kerala higher education system including Principal of the Maharaja’s College Ernakulam, Kochi and Pro Vice Chancellor of Calicut University. During these years, he also won recognition as the guiding spirit behind what is possibly India’s most respected grassroots environment voluntary group, the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) in its landmark struggle to save the Silent Valley tropical rain forest in Southern India. He had helped strengthening the KSSP’s Integrated Rural technology Centre in Mundur, Palakkad district, Kerala and as the Director for three years, oversaw the institute’s many innovations in the area of non-conventional energy device for rural house holds. Prof Prasad has been a member of the United Nations’ Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board throughout its five-year-long tenure and remains a life member and active participant in the activities of the World Wide Fund of Nature (WWF) – India and of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-CEC).
In India, Prof Prasad Chairs the Programme Advisory Committee of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation’s (MSSRF) Agro Biodiversity Centre, in Wayanad, Kerala and serves as a member of the Governing Council of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) and of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board.
Prof. Prasad has authored numerous books and monographs in Malayalam on environmental issues and popular science and co-authored a techno-economic and socio-political assessment of the Silent Valley Hydro Electric project (1979). Prof Prasad makes his home in Kochi, 62 Giri Nagar, Kochi 682020, Kerala, India