Veerabaswant Reddy

Dr. Veerabaswant Reddy is an External Consultant with the School of Environment and Sustainability (SES) at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru. He brings over two decades of experience at the intersection of sustainable agriculture, agroecology, hydrology, and natural resource governance. His work focuses on integrating research and practice in climate-resilient farming systems and landscape-scale ecosystem restoration.

At IIHS, Reddy leads the development of prototype agroforestry models aimed at enhancing climate resilience and food security, particularly in peri-urban and rural contexts. His work is embedded within the Long-Term Urban Ecological Observatory (LTUEO), where he contributes to advancing nature-based solutions (NbS) by integrating hydrology with agroecological approaches. He also collaborates with interdisciplinary teams at IIHS—including the Geospatial Lab and Urban Informatics Lab—to develop tools and strategies for sustainable land and water resource management.

Reddy’s expertise supports evidence-based practice across a range of domains, including the design and implementation of integrated hydrology–agroforestry models and the development of ecosystem service assessment frameworks that inform equitable land and water governance. In addition to contributing to SES’s research, academic programmes, training, and grant proposal development, he also fosters practitioner engagement and citizen science initiatives that support ecosystem-based adaptation and biodiversity conservation.

Before joining IIHS, Reddy held senior research and programme leadership roles at several prestigious institutions, including The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), the National Institute of Hydrology, and various Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). He served as the Karnataka State Lead for the World Bank-supported MELD-REWARD Project, where he contributed to the development of national technical guidelines on watershed management and led evaluations of major state-level development programmes.

He has led and contributed to several multi-disciplinary projects funded by the European Union, Swiss Development Corporation (SDC), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Karnataka Evaluation Authority (KEA), Forest Department, Watershed Development Department (WDD), Special Task Force (STF), and the Ford Foundation. His work has focused on eco-hydrology, agroecosystems, and nature-based interventions such as riverbank filtration (RBF). His demonstrations of RBF systems across river basins in Karnataka have helped improve access to safe drinking water and strengthened agroecosystem resilience.

Reddy is an active member of the International Professional Consortium on Water Resources (IPCWR) and the Karnataka State Agriculture Council. He has published over 20 technical papers in national and international journals and conferences. He is also actively engaged in academic mentorship, having guided more than ten 10 M.Tech students and served as an external examiner at the Department of Water and Land Management, UBDT College of Engineering, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi.