Dr Thara K G

Thara was the Member of the first Disaster Management Authority of Government of Kerala (SDMA) and Served as the Head of the Disaster Management Centre, Institute of Land and Disaster Management under the Revenue Department for 16 years (2000-2016). She also served as a Senior Scientist in the Remote Sensing & Environment Centre for 3 years and as a Selection Grade Lecturer in Geology for 13 years. In the project on “Climate resilience of urban cities” (National Institute of Urban Affairs, Govt. of India), she coordinated it in South Indian states. She gave the keynote address in the International Conference on Disaster Resilience, organised by Glasgow university, UK, in 2019.

Thara also served as a panellist in the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Govt. of India and presently is a Guest Faculty in Disaster Management in National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India and 4 Universities (UGC Academic Staff Training Colleges of the Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi, Central (Kasargod) and Kannur Universities). She is the resource person of the IAS training Centre of Govt. of Kerala, Amritha Institute and 15 government institutions including the State Police, Forest, Health & Family Affairs, Agriculture, state Electricity Board as well as the Fire & Rescue Departments, State Administrative Training institute (IMG), State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), B.Ed Training colleges etc.

Dr Thara won the Young Scientist Award of the Department of Science, Technology & Environment. She is a member of the Expert Panel of UNDP, Delhi in Disaster Management and an external mentor of the Dept. of Education, Govt. of Kerala for the Higher secondary and the Graduation levels. In addition, completed International training programmes in Disaster Management by ADPC (Bangkok); Centre of Excellence, Hawaii (USA); World Bank, World Bank Institute (Washington) & Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) and also the certificate course in Remote Sensing & GIS from the National Remote Sensing Agency.

She has written over 15 reports and approx.. 50 articles in journals and popular magazines on Geology, Disaster Management & Gender issues. She attended around 380 Radio programmes and 450 TV programmes on Disaster management, women empowerment, literature and environment related issues. She also has conducted more than 1500 training and capacity building programmes in disaster management for various stakeholders.