Tamil Nadu inducts 40 Green Fellows to assist Govt in environment-related issues

In a novel initiative, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday inducted 40 young professionals as members of the Chief Minister’s Green Fellowship programme who support the district administrations in implementing three mission-mode projects relating to environment and supporting sustainability. 

While 38 districts will have one fellow each, two fellows of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Green Fellowship Programme will work at the state-level. The programmee is being implemented with help from Anna University, the state’s premier engineering institute. 

Chief Minister M K Stalin personally inducted the 40 fellows on Monday at a simple ceremony in Secretariat, the seat of power of the Tamil Nadu government. “The fellows are all set to embark on their green journey. They will work in all districts learning and supporting sustainability, circularity, greening, and community engagement among others,” Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary (Environment and Forests), said. 

The fellows, whose tenure is two years, will support district administrations in the implementation of Green Tamil Nadu Mission, Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission and Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission, ensuring delivery of environmental services and in creating robust institutional systems and processes for environmental policy. 

 Officials said the fellowship envisions creating and nurturing a cadre of environmentally thoughtful, passionate, well-trained and process-driven future leaders of the world. The Green Fellowship is yet another initiative of the DMK government, which has been focussing on environment related issues by announcing new sanctuaries in the state and launching new projects to save animals of endangered species. 

 They said the primary role of a Green Fellow will be to inform policy making on environmental issues at district level, generating evidence to inform environmental policy-making, supporting the implementation monitoring and evaluating the outcomes communicating the impact of policies aimed at protecting the environment of the state.

The fellows, who will get a monthly stipend of Rs 60,000 and Rs 15,000 as travel allowance, will research best practices adopted by other districts, states and countries on matters pertaining to environment and climate change and assess the feasibility of implementing them within the district's context. 

They will also engage with a diverse range of stakeholders such as other government departments, civil society organizations, local administration and academic institutions and establish institutional feedback mechanisms to receive constant updates on the performance of policy initiatives. 

The officials said the fellows will also create robust citizen engagement strategies in various government initiatives to assess the impact of policy proposals and design innovative new policy solutions and lead the initiative.

Before being allotted the districts, the green fellows will attend a mandatory training programme in Chennai which will include training sessions on understanding governmental systems and structures, reading and analyzing laws and policies, effective communication and writing, working with local communities among others.