Ritwika is an urban researcher at the UN Habitat- Regional Asia and Pacific office in India. She is a Geography graduate from the TERI School of Advanced Studies in New Delhi.  

Broadly, her research navigates the human dimensions of environmental change and development. She is particularly interested in issues of human agency, capacity and aspirations in the face of a rapidly changing world.

At UN-Habitat she works on mainstreaming and making climate interventions inclusive in urban policy and governance. She has worked with a couple of think-tanks on climate change adaptation, strengthening local environmental governance and conservation-policy interface across critical and fragile landscapes such as India’s Western Ghats, Semi-arid landscapes and coastal regions.

She continues to contribute to and alongside build her capacity as an interdisciplinary researcher. She has a keen interest in combining arts with development research to democratize knowledge and for it to resonate with diverse people, cultures and contexts.