Dr. Kumarjeeb Pegu

Qualifications:

• PhD, Centre for International Legal Studies (JNU)
• LL.M (Nalsar Law Uni; LL.B (Uni. Of  Delhi)
• BA Pol. Sci. Hons. ( Uni. Of Delhi)  

Articles:

2025: ‘Navigating India’s Legal Governance in the Water Sector: A Scrutiny into National Performance under the SDG Framework for Clean and Wastewater Management in India’, 16: 4 (with Kshyana Prava Samal) (2025) The Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy, Vol. 16(4), 210–243.

2025: ‘Machine Learning-Enhanced Monitoring and Assessment of Urban Drinking Water Quality in North Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India’ (with Rakesh Ranjan Thakur, Alok Kumar Panda, Debabrata Nandi, Alok Kumar Pati, and Bojan Đurin) (2025) 25: 3 Limnological Review. 44.

2021: ‘Is Safta Relevant? A Critical Scrutiny of its Competitive Edge’— (2021) 11  KIIT Journal of Law and Society. 18-27.

2019:  ‘Disappearing Earth”- Environment Induced Migration: Impact on India and the World’ (with Mitul Dutta) (2019) 49: 1 Environmental Policy and Law 63-75.

2019: ‘A Brief Perspective on the Establishment of Pollution Control Boards in India and their Functions’ (2019) VII Fiat Justitia 115-122.

Book Chapters:

2024: ‘Nomads and Forest Rights, Is It a Myth? An Indian Perspective on the Forest-Dependent Pastoral Communities and Their Practices in Protected Areas’ in T. Venthan Ananthavinayagan and A. Viswanath Shenoy (eds.), The Wretched of the Global South, International Law and the Global South. 127-146. (Springer Nature Singapore). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-9275-1_7

2022: ‘Impact of Legal Instruments in Improving Domestic Water Supply, Case Study Involving Two Nations Tagged with Most Significant Improvement’ (with Mohanty, T., Samal, K.P.) in B. B. Das Et al (eds), Recent Developments in Sustainable Infrastructure (ICRDSI-2020), 461- 474 (Springer Nature Singapore).

2021: ‘Tribals and Forest Rights in India: A Critical Appraisal of the Legal Literature’ in Volker Mauerhofer (eds), The Role of Law in Governing Sustainability, May 2021, 149-167 (Routledge).

Major –

• 2021-2024 ‘Anthropogenic and Geogenic Contamination of Ground water in Bhubaneswar Urban Catchment -A Systematic Investigation’ (worked as Co-Principal Investigator in the project approved and mandated by ICSSR, New Delhi)

Major –

• 2019-2021 ‘Social Determiners of Water Inequity – A Systematic Investigation at Bhubaneswar’ (worked as Co-Principal Investigator in the project approved and mandated by ICSSR, New Delhi).

Conference/Seminar/ Workshops, etc.:

2026: Upcoming oral presentation titled “India’s Nomadic Pastoral Peoples and their Disappearing Cosmologies in Forests: Realigning Traditional Socio-Cultural Rights within the Framework of Forest Laws”, to be presented at the Platinum Jubilee International Conference on Law, Governance, and Society, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India (Upcoming-November 2026).

2026: Oral presentation titled “Legal Personhood for Sacred Landscapes: Re-centring Tribal Cosmologies and Biocultural Rights in India”, presented at the Earth System Governance Conference 2026, University of Bath, United Kingdom.

2025: Delivered research and policy discussion titled ‘Voices of the Forest: A Socio-Legal Exploration of Tribal Identity, Rights, and Human–Wildlife Conflicts in India’ at the 4^th IUCN WCEL World Environmental Law Congress on 7 May 2025, Rabat, Morocco (Financial Grant Recipient).

2024: Invited essay titled “Tribal tapestry: Exploring the social evolution of Indian tribes through indigeneity and state dynamics’ provided to SocioLegal Review, National Law School of India University. https://forum.nls.ac.in/slr-forum-blog/the-tribal-tapestry-exploring-the-social-evolution-of-indian-tribes-through-indigeneity-and-state-dynamics/

2024: ‘Sustainable Practices in access to water and the role of legal governance in waste water disposal: An Indian Legal Analysis’ (oral presentation) presented at 3rd Water Conclave, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India.

2023: ‘Assamese Tribal and the Forest Rights Manifesting, or is it? A Social Legal Investigation’ (oral presentation) presented at the World Anthropology Congress 2023 at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, India.

2023: ‘Symposium on the Right to Housing and Land’: Challenges and Access to Justice’, (attended at NLUO, Cuttack, 2023).

2023: ‘One-Month Online National Faculty Induction Programme/Orientation Course’ organized by Guru Angad Dev Teaching Learning Centre, SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi under the Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) of Union Ministry of Education.

2021: ‘Conceptualization and Confrontation Strategies for Water Inequity’ (Co- authored paper presented at the HYDRO Conference 2020, the Indian Society for Hydraulics (ISH) and National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India.

2021: ‘Impact of Legal Instruments in Improving Domestic Water Supply, Case Study Involving Two Nations Tagged with Most Significant Improvement’ (oral presentation) presented at International Conference on Recent Developments in Sustainable Infrastructure (ICRDSI), India.

2019: ‘Tribals and Forest Rights in India’ (paper presented at 25^th ISDRS Conference, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.

2019: ‘The United Nations’ Development Programme Workshop on Biological Diversity Laws’, (workshop attended at NLUO, Cuttack, 2019).

2018: ‘Workshop on Development of LL.B Course curriculum in India’, (workshop attended at KIIT School of Law, Bhubaneswar, 2018).

2018: ‘Workshop on Development of LL.B Course curriculum in India’, (workshop attended at KIIT School of Law, Bhubaneswar, 2017).

2018: ‘ADB Regional Capacity Development Technical Assistance Strengthening the Capacity for Environment and Climate Change Laws in Asia and the Pacific (Train the Trainers Program)’, (training programme attended at Open Uni. Of Sri Lanka, organized with Asian Development Bank and IUCN, Colombo, 2018) (Financial Grant Recipient).

2018: ‘Advocacy Skill Training of Trainers Programme’, (training programme attended at KIIT School of Law, Odisha, 2018).

Others

Academic Fellowship :

Visiting fellow under the Warwick National Law Schools Academic Fellowship Programme 2023-24 at Warwick Law School, Warwick University for the year 2023-24. (2024)

Official responsibilities :

Director, Centre for Disaster Management and Law (since 2025)

Director, Centre for Tribal Studies (2023-2024)

Convener, Anti-Discrimination (North-East) Committee (since 2022)

Convener, Anti-Discrimination (SC/ST) Committee (since 2022)

Talks and lectures-

Invited panelist, “Revisiting the Framework of Tribal Autonomy: Legal Pluralism and Self-Determination,” National Conference on “Revisiting Indigenous and Tribal Rights: State Policy, Vulnerability and Epistemic Justice,” Department of Law, Central University of Kerala (2026).

Invited resource person, Round Table Discussion on “Climate Change, Environmental Governance, and Global Justice: Law, Policy, and Institutional Responses,” organised by the Centre for Environmental Law and Climate Justice (CELCJ), The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS) (2026).

Chair, Technical Session on Land, Governance, Gender, and Justice, National Conference on “Recognition, Rights and Realities: Tribal Identity, Governance and Justice in Contemporary India,” Centre for Tribal and Cultural Studies (CTCS), Himachal Pradesh National Law University, Shimla (2026).

Invited speaker, talk on community forest governance, conservation, and forest-based livelihoods, with a focus on the Forest Rights Act, 2006, as a tool for socio-economic and ecological empowerment of forest-dependent communities in Odisha; organised by PRADAN (2026).

Delivered a talk as an invited panelist for the session titled “Food Rights, Wild Food and Policy Opportunities” at the State Level Adivasi Food Festival being organized by Living Farms, in collaboration with Home Science Department of Kamala Nehru Women’s college and NCNF-Odisha at Kamala Nehru Women’s College, Bhubaneswar. (2025)

Delivered a talk as an invited panelist for the session titled “Land Resources, Laws, and Governance” at the 8th India Land Development Conference, held in Pune, India. (2024)

Delivered talk on “Does law empower Pastoral Communities? A Critical Note on India’s Forest Rights” as part of the course on International Development Law and Human Rights (IDLHR) at Warwick Law School. (2024)

Delivered lectures under the Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Law (PGDEL) programme for Indian Forest Services (IFoS) officer trainees conducted at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) (Dehradun, India) in the area of ‘natural resources law and tribal peoples’ rights’ with a focus on India’s Forest and wildlife protection legislations.’ (2023)

• Top of Form

Delivered talk on “Nomadic tribes and Protected Areas” at the symposium on ‘The Right to Housing and Land’: Challenges and Access to Justice’ was organised on September 23, 2023 by National Law University Odisha in collaboration with The Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) and The Centre for the Sustainable Use of Natural and Social Resources (CSNR)(2023)

Delivered lectures at the Government of Bihar’s Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (Bihar, India) on the topics of (i) Sustainable practices in access to water and the role of legal governance in wastewater disposal, (ii) An Indian legal perspective on E-waste management and India’s looming solar waste generation and (iii) A legal overview of Waste Management and Impact in India. (2023)

Delivered lecture on “Workers’ rights and labour law” organized by National Law University, Odisha under its Law and Justice program for visiting students from Victoria Uni., Melbourne (Australia). (2022)

Delivered lecture on “How to write impactful Doctrinal Paper” organized by School of Law, KIIT D-U on the occasion of the Online Faculty Development Program- 2021 entitled ‘Exploring self: A New Paradigm in Education. (2021)

Delivered lecture on “Forest Rights – A Legal Perspective of Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Agriculture” organized for the benefit of the staff of ICAR- Central Institute for Women in Agriculture on 16th September 2020 in connection with the observation of Constitution Day and Citizens’ Duties Campaign. (2020)