A tree is a promise the whole village keeps
IIES is a registered non-profit working in rural Odisha since 2010. We are building a native and medicinal tree plantation programme, designed so that every site has a village group paid to keep it alive long after the planting day.
- Programme areas delivered
- 16Programme areas delivered. Environment, livelihoods, health.
- Offices across Odisha
- 4Offices across Odisha. Khordha, Bargarh, Nayagarh, Cuttack.
- People on the team
- 100+People on the team. Field staff, trainers, coordinators.
What we work on
Sixteen programme areas across four districts since 2010. Some are running today, others are completed projects that shaped how we work.
Environment and natural resources
- Herbal Garden and Awareness
- Environmental Awareness
- Water and Sanitation (Swachh Bharat Abhiyan)
- Disaster Risk Management
Livelihoods and enterprise
- Promotion of SHG and MED
- Vocational Training
- Mobile Repairing Training
- Entrepreneurship Awareness
- Women Empowerment
Health and community
- Health Camp
- HIV/AIDS Awareness
- Consumer Awareness
- Cultural Heritage
- Road Safety Awareness
- Creche Programme
- Senior Citizens Home
The work, as it looks
Photographs from live project sites across Khordha, Bargarh, Nayagarh and Cuttack.
Native and medicinal tree plantation
This is the programme we are building now. Most plantations are lost in the two years after planting, when nobody is responsible for them any more, so we are designing it around that gap: land agreed with the gram panchayat first, then each site handed to a local group paid to look after it.
It grows out of work we already know. Herbal gardens and awareness has been one of our programme areas, and in February 2026 we submitted a national awareness campaign on Shatavari to the Ministry of AYUSH.
Species with a use value
A village protects a tree it has a reason to keep, so the mix will lean on the medicinal species our herbal-garden work already covers.
Land settled first
Sites will be agreed with the gram panchayat before anything is planted, so tenure and maintenance are on paper from the start.
A named local custodian
Each site will go to a self-help group we already work with, and maintenance through the first two summers will be paid work.
Counted again, later
Sites will be re-counted on a fixed schedule. The figure we report will be the surviving count, not the planting-day count.
Where we work
A head office near Bhubaneswar and three project offices, each with field staff who live in the district.
Gobindapur, Jatni
Khordha
Padampur
Bargarh
Kantilo
Nayagarh
Kakiriguma, via Koraput
Cuttack
How the work is funded
Government grants, research contracts and corporate partnerships all support the programmes. Environmental work like plantation falls under Schedule VII (iv) of the Companies Act, so it is straightforward for a company to fund through CSR.
If your organisation is looking at environment or plantation for its CSR spend, we can put together a proposal for the districts you care about.
Companies Act, 2013, Schedule VII (iv)
Ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, animal welfare, agroforestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water including contribution to the Clean Ganga Fund set-up by the Central Government for rejuvenation of river Ganga.
Ministry of AYUSH
Health promotion strategy
National Medicinal Plants Mission
Sustainable plant utilisation
Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)
Delivered at district level
Societies Registration Act
Registered non-profit
Come and see a project site
The field offices are open to visits. Spending a morning at a live site tells you more about an organisation than any proposal will.