In this episode, Vijaya Chakravarty shares how her work evolved from designing beautiful but “sterile” landscapes to creating spaces that support biodiversity, learning, and human well-being. She reflects on the influence of her family, the lessons she has learned from nature, and the books, podcast, and community projects shaping what she calls her “second innings.” Vijaya also offers a powerful reminder that growing older does not make us less useful—it gives us knowledge and experience worth sharing with the generations that follow.
Vijaya Chakravarty is an ecologist, landscape designer, educator, and author moving between Mumbai and Pune, India. Her life’s work sits at the exact intersection her venture is named for. Through Venture Well-Being “For the Planet, For the People”, she has spent decades proving that caring for green spaces and caring for communities are never two separate jobs.
For the Planet: Vijaya has designed and developed several eco-friendly landscapes for corporates, educational and Not for profits. She is one of the several stewards for IWSA’s Learning Garden at Vashi, Navi Mumbai and of Aditi Garden, a 25-acre urban green space in Magarpatta City not. These are not gardens she visits, but landscapes she showcases as living classrooms for multi-disciplinary learning and well-being of the people and the planet.
Her ecological interests run deep and specific: urban biodiversity, wetlands, mangroves, and the quiet resilience of indigenous flora. She’s a founder member of the Magarpatta Environment Club and a member of the National Society of Friends of Trees, institutional homes for a conservation ethic she also lives out on the page, most recently in For the Love of Trees: Science & Emotions, co-authored and launched at Empress Garden, Pune this past July, featuring a travelling tusker character named Gajanan who carries science and emotions to readers through story.
For the People: Vijaya’s ecology has never stopped at the soil line. Her work reaches into schools and communities through nature education programs, CSR partnerships, and public writing that makes conservation feel personal rather than prescriptive. As a member of Bombay Natural History society, Indian Women Scientists’ Association, National Society for Friends of trees, Indian Women Graduates Union and Aarambh, she’s part of a network of women actively reshaping who gets to speak with authority in science and land stewardship. Her writing voice is warm, witty, self-deprecating, threading etymology and mythology through botany, is itself a form of “for the people” work: it makes ecological knowledge feel like inheritance, not instruction.
Where the two meet: What distinguishes Vijaya’s practice is that she treats indigenous knowledge as something to be verified and consented to, not simply extracted for a good story. This discipline shows in projects like her exploration of folk and tribal art forms (Gond, Warli, Kalamkari, Madhubani, Pithora) and her intergenerational education work. Vijaya organises Nature-Folk Art workshops with several experts.
Vijaya is currently in what she calls her “second innings”, a phase she describes as centered on purpose and meaningful contribution, built on a model that blends publishers, sponsors, CSR partners, and honorariums, allowing the work to stay rooted in both ecological integrity and community reach rather than either alone.
Vijaya offers a garden, a book, and a classroom, different vessels, same instinct. The well-being of the land and the well-being of its people were never meant to be told as separate stories.
. If this conversation resonates with you, you may also enjoy our episode with Dr. Lalitha Dhareshwar – Scientist; President of IWSA (Indian Women Scientists’ Association) as mentioned in this episode.
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