Manu Bhatnagar is an architect, urban and environmental planner with 27 Years of experience in the environment sector. He currently heads the Natural Heritage Division of INTACH as Principal Director. An alumni of Cornell University with qualifications in Regional Planning, he also has qualifications in Policy Analysis, Strategic Management, Strategic Environmental Assessment, Environmental Law, Conservation of Rivers and Lakes, Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Development, from prestigious institutes. 

He has been a visiting faculty at SPA and Centre for Heritage Management, Ahmedabad Univ. Presently, he is a nominated expert member of UP Govt.s’ Multi-Stakeholder Platform for Ganga Tributary Management, of Wetland Authority of Delhi [GNCTD], of NMCG Committee on Yamuna River E-flows, of Delhi Biodiversity Council.

He has worked in India and in SE Asia on diverse projects ranging from urban-regional-environmental planning to river conservation, water policy, sustainable agriculture, urban biodiversity, lake conservation and management [with studies, projects and activism on several significant lakes and wetlands] and cultural documentation. He has worked on Ramsar sites, salt water lakes, oxbow lakes and marshes, heritage water bodies, water policy, river island policy and geoheritage.

He has authored/co-authored/edited the following books :

• Understanding Rivers {2017}

• A Guidebook to River Basin Management for Medium & Minor Rivers {2020}
• Naturalizing the River Front [2022]
• Uncovering Pre-Districts Bioregions of India [2022] (unpublished)
• Samagrata & Samakshata [partly co-authored and edited volumes] on the Ganga [2022)
• A Narrative of the Ganga – A Citizens’ Report [2023]
• Heads and Tails of the Ganga [2023]
• Construction In Earth (1989)