ABOUT DFF
ABOUT DFF
GREEN HUB
GREEN HUB
GREEN HUB
PARTNERS
PARTNERS
COVID 19 RELIEF
COVID 19 RELIEF
ABOUT DFF
Dusty Foot Foundation (DFF) a not for profit organization registered under section 8 of Indian Companies Act, 2013, is the youth and community outreach initiative of Dusty Foot Productions (DFP) - a media and communications production house based in New Delhi.
DUSTY FOOT FOUNDATION (DFF) works to leverage the power of youth in conservation action and social change through the use of digital technology and education; scaling up through inter-disciplinary and inter-sectoral collaborations and effective networks of government, civil society and community partnerships. The aim is to help youth connect with their roots – preserve their natural resources, traditional knowledge and sustainable practices, and integrate digital communication to build skills, generate aspirational livelihoods, strengthen enterprise and local economy for an ecologically secure and sustainable future.
Board Members
Rita Banerji is the founder of DFP, DFF and the Green Hub Project. An Ashoka Fellow, she is the winner of multiple Green Oscars for her films on wildlife and environment, and was awarded the National Geographic – CMS Prithvi Ratna award for her outstanding contribution to conservation. Rita was inducted as an Ashoka Fellow for the Green Hub project in 2019. (https://www.ashoka.org/en-in/fellow/rita-banerji ) She has been part of 3 films that have won the Green Oscar (Wildscreen Panda Award), the last being ‘The Wild Meat Trail’ in 2010. Rita has consistently made award-winning films related to biodiversity conservation, wildlife, environment and social development. Rita brings the experience of working with youth and communities on the ground across India, mentoring and training them in filmmaking and digital documentation, especially in the field of environment, wildlife and people's biodiversity. She was awarded the Sanctuary Nature Foundation Wildlife Service Award 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq3cJBd0v6s)
Rangu Rao is a leading Indian development professional with more than 25 years of experience of working in some of the most challenging, tribal, drought-prone, backward areas of the country. He is co-founder of Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS). Rangu Rao has combined 25 years of living and working at the grass-roots with policy advocacy, deeply informed by his endeavours in the field. He is currently CEO, Safe Harvest Private Limited (SHPL), which is perhaps the only company of its kind in India that is engaged in marketing of agricultural commodities produced without the use of chemical synthetic pesticides. SHPL works closely with 24 farmer producer organisations located in some of the most difficult geographies, across 11 states in the country. Safe Harvest retails close to 60 products in more than 500 stores across the cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Vizag and Vijayawada. It has recently begun operations in the NCR.
Sanjay Sondhi, Founder Trustee, TITLI TRUST is a Dehradun-based naturalist. An engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Kanpur (1987), the study of natural history has been his passion for more than three decades. His natural history interests include studying, photographing and writing about nature with a special interest in birds, butterflies, moths and amphibians and reptiles. He has authored numerous books and technical papers on amphibians and reptiles, birds, butterflies and moths and other Indian wildlife.
Sanjay spent 20 years in the corporate world. In 2005, he was one of 8 awardees selected from 120,000 global employees for the highest individual award in Honeywell. In his last assignment, he was the Managing Director of Honeywell Turbo India based in Pune. He moved on from the corporate sector in mid-2008 to devote himself to nature conservation and environmental protection.
Tisha Srivastava, is an Assistant Professor in Film & Media Studies at Ashoka University. She received her Masters Degree in Global Media and Post-National Communication from School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. She has been a practicing journalist for over 24 years. In her previous full time roles, she has headed the Video department for Yahoo India, been part of NDTV 24×7’s Documentary Features team as well as part, of the award winning team for India’s first ever TV environmental features show, Living on the Edge. She has also spent six years traveling across India, four of which were with another woman in a Maruti Van in the mid-1990s. Connecting the lesser known with the mainstream is an abiding interest in communication, as is a long time love of the Himalaya.
Anjali Khosla, is the founding director of Moving Images Films Pvt. Ltd. is a production house that has produced award winning documentaries on a range of issues. With more than three decades in the industry Anjali has vast experience from working in the first community based participatory video production house CENDIT, to being a video editor for ‘Eyewitness’, a monthly news magazine anchored by Karan Thapar, for Doordarshan. Through Moving Images Anjali has worked with clients ranging from The World Bank, Winrock International, DFID, TERI, NABARD, Ministry of External Affairs among others. In recent years Anjali has also worked as Program Director, Communications for Fortis Foundation CSR. She continues to be a consultant with Srishti Films, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore, and a mentor with the Green Hub Project, a video based program that leverages the power of youth in conservation action and social change.
Program Manager
Rehana is a social development manager and video editor. She has a keen interest in enabling young people to achieve their best potential. Her particular interest is the well being and empowerment of children and youth at risk, especially adolescent girls. She has also been a fellow of Gender Sexuality Lab 2019 organised by Nazariya (A Queer Feminist Resource Group) and Orikalankni.
She has managed the Childscapes project for DFF and is continuing to take forward her involvement with Green Hub and other DFF projects. She has worked on various film edits including editing assignments for Insight Dojo, Algebra, Eco-Grants, Art Ichol and Enquiry.
Accounts
Azeem Haider is an accountant with more than 12 years of experience in core accounting, direct/indirect taxation and audit work. Since 1 April 2018, he is Founding Partner in the accounting firm M/s Brass Tax Accounting Solutions, working with Individuals, Private Limited Companies, Partnership Firms and Non Profit organizations. Prior to this, Azeem has worked with M/s S.M. Varma and Co. (Chartered Accountants), New Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi as a senior accountant from November 2007 to March 2018.
He has also worked as an Audit assistant with M/s MCM Maheshwari & Co. (Chartered Accountants) Hauzkhas, New Delhi from March-2006 to June 2006; and as Accountant Assistant with M/s Neeraj Jagdish & Associates (Chartered Accountants) Laxmi Nagar, Delhi from Sep.2005 to Feb 2006. He has been a part of statutory audit of Zutshi Tours & Travels Pvt. Ltd., Crown Security Services, Venu Charitable Society. He has also conducted the internal audit of Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Center, Bhopal. He works in Tally 7.2 and Tally ERP 9. Azeem has recently joined to support and manage the accounts at Dusty Foot Foundation.
Mojiz Hussain joined Dusty Foot Foundation in January 2023 as an Accounts officer. He completed his B.COM from Lajpat Rai College, Ghaziabad. He is also pursuing his Bachelor of Law (LLB) from Moradabad College of Law. He has more than 3 years of experience in core accounting, direct/indirect taxation and audit work. Prior to this, he was working with M/s Brass Tax Accounting Solutions as an Accounts Assistant from 2019 -2022. He likes to play cricket and badminton in his free time.
Team Members
Bonti Saikia grew up in Shillong, and then spent many years in the tea gardens of Assam – involving herself in landscaping, growing flowers and vegetables and baking. She joined Green Hub in April 2015 and is the Project Lead at Green Hub. Being incharge of all the projects might seem to be a very hectic task, but Bonti is excellent in handling all the projects with a lovely smile on her face. Apart from being superb with her communication skills, she is the mentor and comforter for the entire team. She is the heart and soul of Green Hub and is the connect point for hundreds of applicants and fellows as well as the organisations working with Green Hub across the region. Bonti also loves travelling, gardening, listening to music and is also fond of various sports.
Neeharika Hazarika has been with Green Hub since April 2016. She is the Program Assistant in Green Hub and she assists the admin as well as the programming team ensuring the smooth functioning of the everyday logistics of the fellowship programs. She completed her graduation from Darrang College in Assamese Literature and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Mass Communication and Journalism at Cotton College, Guwahati. She has also completed M.A. in Rural Development from IGNOU. Apart from being a dedicated and very sincere member of the Green Hub team, Neeharika is a trained Sattriya dancer and is excellent in Bihu dance as well. It does not take much for her to break into a dance at any point of the day. She is also a talented writer, penning stories and poetry in Assamese, and is also known to light up the work environment with her beautiful songs and melodious voice.
Riksundar Dutta started working with Green Hub in November 2018 and is currently working as the Accounts Officer. He completed his B. Com in Accountancy at Tezpur College. With his shy smile, Rik is a deceptively quiet presence at the office, growing a reputation for pranking his friends in the most unexpected ways and all the while keeping a straight face. Although he is always busy with his accounts part, yet he is always ready to offer his helping hand towards the other members of the team to help them with any assigned task. A multi tasker Rik has a ‘can do’ attitude for everything and is no doubt a dependable support system for Green Hub. He is also very fond of sports, driving, and food!
Bishal Shil is from Tezpur and he completed his graduation in B. Com from Darrang College, Tezpur. He joined Green Hub as the Assistant Admin and Accountant in June 2022. Being in the field of commerce, he has always been interested to work with numbers and therefore, he feels blessed to share this skill of his with the people he works with. Experimenting with numbers and working as an accounts' person brings him satisfaction. He further wishes to explore more in this field and to learn and furnish his numeric ideas in the field of work. He is also interested in cricket, cycling, reading books, and listening to music whenever he is free.
Yadam Kino is from a beautiful place called Seijosa located near Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh. She completed her graduation from Dera Natung Government College, Itanagar, and B.Ed from Arunachal University of Studies in Namsai. As her family has always been associated with the field of conservation, she too developed her interest to work in this field at a very young age. She joined Green Hub in April 2022 as the Program Associate, and before joining, she had also worked as their Field Assistant in the Pakke Revolving Fund Project for a duration of two months. Yadam is in love with plants and is very interested in gardening. She loves to meet with new people, to travel, to explore and learn from different communities and their culture. She plans to continue exploring newer places.
Nikita Buragohain is from Tezpur, Assam, and she joined the Green Hub family in September 2022 as a Program Associate. She completed her graduation in English literature from Darrang College, Tezpur, and post graduation in Mass Communication and Journalism from Tezpur University. Since she was a kid, she has been engaged in the field of animal welfare. Being able to help them by engaging in rescue missions independently, also working with people who share the same love and care towards the voiceless, and being ready to provide them with a shelter/home brings her peace and joy. To create a comforting world and safe environment for such angels is what she dreams about. Apart from this, she is interested in the field of content writing and has written various creative contents and articles earlier. Moreover, she further plans to use her writing skills for a better cause.
Subung Warner Phulari from Dibrugarh, Assam, Subung Warner Phulari has joined Green Hub for an amazing new fellowship ‘The Responsible Tourism Fellowship Program’. Coming from a tourism background, he has joined Green Hub as the Project Coordinator for this new fellowship program. He completed his M.A. in MTTM from Tezpur University, Assam and has also worked as an Executive Trainee in Seven Sisters Development Assistance (SeSTA). Eager to work in the field of development, he is always geared to work for rural communities and conservation. He believes in pursuing the degree of life by being a student and messenger of nature and is further interested in extreme adventure sports.
Technical Mentors
Sumit Sisodiya is a self-taught filmmaker and environment enthusiast, learning from his many experiences of working on-field. He was with Dusty Foot Productions from August 2009 to February 2016 as a camera person and editor. Sumit is also associated with Tuning Fork Films where he has helped conduct filmmaking courses across the country for a wide background of people including students, educators and professionals. Sumit now serves in Green Hub, a video fellowship for youth across northeast India. He initially came to Green Hub as a resource person for editing and as an internship mentor. In 2018 he shifted with his family to Tezpur and now oversees the multiple technical aspects at Green Hub from the Video management system, and training assistants team to mentoring the fellows. Along with Green Hub, Sumit is also exploring pitching platforms for the world of documentary filmmaking. His feature length project ‘Unknown, the silence within’ later the project name changed to ‘About my father’ won the Let’sdoc fellowship program in 2021 and DocedgeKolkata - Lumiere Award in 2023. A Cash award to a promising first-time filmmaker.
Vijender Sharma worked as a cameraperson and technical coordinator for DFP for over 7 years and continues to handle some of our key shoots. He has a wide experience working across different fields of documentary films including wildlife, environment, and social issues besides news, programming and corporate films. He is well tuned into the latest technologies of cameras and shooting procedures. Apart from this he also video edits short documentaries and news videos. Vijender has a deep passion for his work and enjoys taking on challenges to get the best possible visuals.