Dr. Shekar Raghavan

    Since his childhood days, Shekar Raghavan had a curiosity about finding possible ways to store the rain water. His inquisitiveness to seek feasible techniques to conserve rain water later became his life’s sole objective and mission. To remain in the city of Chennai, he went on to work as a marketing executive.

   Working as a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, Raghavan learnt about the traditional water harvesting and preservation techniques. The classical rainwater harvesting reservoirs, better known as ‘erys’ in southern India, provided water to areas with relatively low rainfall. He studied decades-old surveys of hundreds of villages.

   The surveys made him aware and showed him how the villagers saved water in the temple ponds and in the fields. An idea struck his mind to apply the same mechanism with innovation in the cities. He kicked off a campaign in....