Our Story
“We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace” The Earth Charter Preamble
The late Fr. Hermann Bacher SJ, ‘Father of the Watershed Movement’, founded the Social Centre in 1967. Carrying forward his pioneering legacy, the Social Centre is engaged in community-led soil and water conservation projects in Maharashtra. This people’s watershed movement has helped to stem migration of rural poor, even during the years of drought. To share the experience of successful watershed management in over 200 villages, the Social Centre established the Xavier Institute of Natural Resource Management (XINRM) in 2017.
XINRM brings Social Centre’s innovative field practices and lessons learned, working with village communities, to the university academia. The XINRM Master’s in Natural Resource Management & Sustainable Development (NRM & SD) offers an ideal mix of learnings and analysis of concepts, public policy, theory and practice that include learning-by-doing, and technology-enabled analysis and solutions.
XINRM trains students to contribute to the development of a more sustainable society that safeguards the earth’s resources on which the welfare of present and future generations depends. XINRM offers a Master’s in NRM & SD (4 Semesters), PG Diploma in NRM & SD (2 Semesters) and Certificate courses in NRM, GIS and Remote Sensing. The NRM course is a blended classroom and field-based programme, structured around a core of natural and social sciences courses. Policies around soil, water and environment, like ground & surface water policies, watershed guidelines, climate treaties etc. at the national and international levels are very important components of the XINRM courses.