Who is Supriya Sahu? The IAS Officer Who Won UNEP’s 2025 Champions of the Earth Award
Supriya Sahu is a 1991‑batch Indian Administrative Service officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre and Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests Department, who has been conferred with the United Nations Environment Programme’s 2025 Champions of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental honour. She is a 2025 laureate in the category “Inspiration and Action” for pioneering climate leadership in Tamil Nadu through large‑scale ecosystem restoration, sustainable cooling, and community‑centric climate governance.
Supriya Sahu: Early life, Career and Current Role
Supriya Sahu was born on 27 July 1968 and joined the IAS in 1991, serving in various administrative and public broadcasting roles before becoming a leading figure in environmental governance. She is presently posted as Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu in the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, co-leading some of India’s most ambitious state‑level climate and conservation programmes.
Prior to this, she also served in other powerful positions such as Principal Secretary in the state and held leadership positions in Doordarshan and Prasar Bharti, amassing experience in public communication which later served her well in orchestrating mass environmental campaigns. Indeed, her reputation as a “green crusader” is a product of combining administrative power with grassroots engagement and evidence-based policy.
UN’s Highest Environmental Honour: Champions of the Earth 2025
In December 2025, UNEP called Supriya Sahu one of its “Champions of the Earth” laureates, terming the award the United Nations’ highest environmental honor. She was recognized in the category of Inspiration and Action for “pioneering and long-standing work” against climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution in India, with the award presented at a ceremony during the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi.
Check out: Cabinet Ministers of India 2025: Check the Complete List Here!
UNEP highlighted that under her leadership Tamil Nadu has advanced sustainable cooling, urban heat adaptation and large‑scale ecosystem restoration, creating about 2.5 million green jobs and improving resilience for nearly 12 million people. The Champions of the Earth Award was established in 2005 as UNEP’s most prestigious recognition for transformative environmental action across policy leadership, science, entrepreneurial vision and inspiration.
Important Environmental Initiatives in Tamil Nadu
Sahu is one of the chief architects of Tamil Nadu’s “Green Missions” – the Green Tamil Nadu Mission, Climate Change Mission, Wetlands Mission and Tamil Nadu Coastal Restoration Mission, are integrated through the Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company, India’s first state-owned not-for-profit climate vehicle. These have together promoted afforestation, climate budgeting, coastal protection and integrated adaptation planning at scale.
Her programmes, between 2021 and 2023, have led to the planting of more than 100–108 million trees and notification of more than 7,000 hectares as new Reserve Forests, besides creating around 65–70 new forest and wildlife conservation areas. Tamil Nadu, under her guidance, has also doubled its mangrove cover, increased Ramsar‑listed wetlands from one to 20 sites and provided an Endangered Species Conservation Fund of about 60 million USD to safeguard vital fauna such as dugongs and slender lorises.
Sustainable Cooling and Climate Resilience
UNEP and other profiles mention the groundbreaking work Sahu is doing in sustainable cooling and heat adaptation-especially in dense urban centers like Chennai. She leads initiatives such as climate-sensitive urban design with tree-lined corridors, nature-based shading, cool roofing, and heat-action plans that shield vulnerable communities from extreme temperatures.
She has integrated climate risk and carbon considerations into public housing, infrastructure, and budgeting processes, promoting “climate budgeting” across state departments so that development spending aligns with emission‑reduction and resilience goals. These low‑tech and high‑tech interventions together are cited as a model of how sub‑national governments can mainstream adaptation into everyday governance.
Legacy and Significance
Through the work done by her, Supriya Sahu has enabled Tamil Nadu to emerge as a national leader in state‑level climate action, ecological restoration, and innovative climate finance. She shows how an administrative officer can translate global environmental priorities into local programmes that generate jobs, protect vulnerable communities, and reverse ecosystem degradation.
By being granted the 2025 Champions of the Earth Award, she has joined an elite group of global climate and environment leaders and underlines the rising importance of Indian sub-national efforts in the global environmental governance landscape.
Recommended Reading:
