Harsh Vardhan Bhati (LLM ’16) is a Senior Research Associate at the Jindal Global Law School, O. P. Jindal Global University. Prior to joining Jindal, Harsh was a public interest environmental lawyer working as a Legal Research Associate at the Environment Support Group (ESG), in Bengaluru, India.
Harsh found that Lewis & Clark Law School was the perfect and unique place to learn and hone his skills in the international environmental law & policy arena. Harsh was exposed to various perspectives on environmental law & policy and developed a deep interest in environmental justice under the supervision of Prof. Blumm, Prof. Wold, Prof. Rohlf, Prof. Lyman, and Prof. Johnston, amongst others.
During his LLM, Harsh participated in the International Environmental Law Project (IELP), where he worked on Japan’s new whaling regulation NEWREP-A, and the dispute settlement mechanism under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. His LLM seminar paper compared the constitutional protection of tribes’ sacred sites in the United States and India. In 2016, he participated in Prof. Lyman’s international environmental law course in Ecuador, where he learned about biodiversity conservation, climate change, sustainable development, human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples. He has also contributed towards social and academic work in the Amazon rainforest (in Brazil) on the rights of indigenous communities, forest rights and sustainable development.
Currently, Harsh is working with the ESG team in promoting various human rights and environmental justice concerns in Karnataka, and other states in India. He is working on solid waste management issues in an urban setting, lake rejuvenation and rehabilitation, protection and reclaiming of Commons, Bio-piracy issues regarding bt-brinjal, and the Revised Master Plan- 2031 Bengaluru. ESG has filed environmental violation cases in the Supreme Court of India, the High Court of Karnataka and the National Green Tribunal of India.