The Environmental Law Institute® has promoted Pooja Seth Parikh to Director of its India Program. Parikh has served as the Deputy Director of the India Program for the past year.
Parikh is excited about the Program’s success to date. She hopes to increase its outreach. “I feel that this is a tremendous opportunity for me, as an Indian-American lawyer, to facilitate the exchange of information and expertise that can help India to protect its environment and the health and well-being of its people,” Parikh said.
A graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and staff member of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, Parikh formerly worked in the litigation and international arbitration practice group of White and Case, LLP. Her international and environmental experience includes working with the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in the West Bank, and the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Amman, Jordan.
The ELI India Program that Parikh now directs was initiated in 1998. Through collaborative partnerships involving ELI staff and American legal volunteers with Indian legal and technical professionals, ELI has sought to promote better decisionmaking. Many Indian laws are precedent setting, but gaps persist between the law as written and its actual implementation and enforcement.
ELI’s India Program aims to bridge the gaps by strengthening the Indian judiciary’s ability to render effective judgments in environmental cases. The program creates training for government officials charged with the implementation and enforcement of India’s far reaching environmental laws. On the non-governmental side, the program provides compliance assistance to industry and helps build the capacity of the public to participate in environmental decisionmaking.
For more information about ELI’s India Program or the Environmental Law Institute, please contact Pooja Seth Parikh at (202) 939-3812 or visit our website at http://www.eli.org.