Shukla won the prestigious Goldman Prize 2024 for leading a community campaign that saved 445,000 acres of biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India.

As a convenor with Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan (the Save Chhattisgarh Movement), an informal alliance of grassroots movements across the state, Shukla closely works with Adivasi or indigenous communities to empower them about their forest rights. Growing up in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh, Shukla witnessed the environmental and social devastation wrought by extractive industries, so he dedicates his life to protecting the water, forests and land of central India, as well as supporting the Adivasi tribes who are the traditional stewards of the land.

(Photo: Goldman Prize)