Dr. Satyagopal Korlapati, is an officer belonging to the Indian Administrative Service of 1987 batch, allotted to Tamil Nadu Cadre. Besides Master’s degree (2^nd Rank and Distinction) and Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology, & P.G. Diploma in Environmental Studies, he also has Masters Degree in Public Administration (Maxwell School, Syracuse University, USA) & Graduate Certificate in Environmental Decision Making (State University of New York, College of Environmental Science & Forestry) USA. He is a recipient of International Honour of Phi Beta Delta Award for excellence in Academics.

He has worked extensively on Environment related issues in the State of Tamil Nadu as well as in Government of India in various capacities. During his field assignments as Sub-Collector, Additional Collector (Development) and District Collector he was very active in promoting Soil & Moisture Conservation, Integrated Watershed Management, Rehabilitation & Restoration of Water Ways & Bodies, Drought Mitigation, Afforestation and Sustainable Rural Development besides promoting Community & NGO involvement in Interface forest management. He also focused on construction of Link Roads between important places, & construction of bridges across streams &small rivers to reduce distances between places to improve movement of men & materials & reduce fossil fuel consumption.

As Theni District Collector, he introduced novel concepts viz, construction of series of major check dams in the streams traversing agricultural fields to recharge Wells, construction of hillocks connecting major check dams to reduce human & biotic pressures in forest areas and to recharge ground water to benefit farmers. He also brought convergence of different schemes under Tamil Nadu Afforestation Programme on a watershed basis, which has become a model for other Districts to follow.

As Director General of National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM), he promoted Climate Resilient Sustainable Agricultural practices by convergence of the Agro-ecosystem Analysis based Integrated Pest Management with Ecological Engineering for Pest Management. He popularized low cost technologies that can be adopted at the farm level for production of Microbial Bio-pesticides, Parasitoids & Predators to reduce reliance on agrochemicals. He was instrumental in establishing partnerships with USDA (Department of Agriculture USA) & Department of Agriculture, Australia for offering International & National Training Programs to impart skills in Sustainable Agricultural practices, Sanitary & Phytosanitary measures and skills to promote Bio-security measures. The recommendations made to amend certain provisions of The Plant Quarantine (regulation of import into India) Order, 2003 to protect native biodiversity were accepted by Ministry of Agriculture. He was also the Chairman of the Committee which brought out revised IPM packages to rely on ecosystem based strategies. The recommendations made by the Committee  Chaired by him to amend certain provisions  to the rule 19 - manner of labelling & rule 18 –leaflet of Insecticide Rules 1971 to make Label claims more transparent were also accepted.

As Additional Chief Secretary/Commissioner Revenue Administration &State Relief Commissioner, he strengthened Preparedness, Rescue, Relief and Build Back Better Systems to promote Risk Reduction   and enhance Resilience to Disaster Risks. Several new practices were introduced during his tenure which, were identified as Best Practices by National Disaster Management Authority & recommended to other States for adoption. He prepared and secured approval for TN State Disaster Management Perspective Plan 2018-2030, which adopts Systems Approach for holistic treatment of river basins & protection of fragile ecosystems to reduce disaster risks and enhance resilience to fulfill the major goals identified under Sendai framework. As State Relief Commissioner, he managed the worst drought faced by Tamil Nadu during the years 2016 & 2017 and the severe water crisis during 2019 in Chennai and a few other Districts. He also initiated several measures for Flood Mitigation such as Cut & cover Canals, riverine reservoirs, diversion canals for Intra-basin transfer, substitution of concrete surplus weirs with shutters etc. which, provided permanent solution in many Areas of Very High Vulnerability in Chennai & its neighbourhood. He successfully handled severe Cyclones and minimized loss of lives during Vardha, Ockhi & Gaja Cyclones. He took personal interest in implementing, on a large scale, Rain water harvesting works, conversion of defunct recharge bore-wells & open-wells as recharge structures and renovation of Temple Tanks.

The suggestion made by him as Chairman & Managing Director TNWRCRRC, for revision of Kazhuveli Check dam proposal, to enhance the storage capacity from originally proposed 2 tmc to 6.6 tmc without increase in the original cost of Rs.161 crores, was accepted by Government of Tamil Nadu. On completion of the project the water stored in the Kazhuveli Lake will substantially augment drinking water resources to meet the needs of Greater Chennai Corporation and Villipuram District. Further, he submitted proposals for creation of a monolithic storage structure by integrating 25 abandoned quarry sites at Sikkarayapuram, Kancheepuram District & diversion of surplus waters of Chembarambakkam reservoir to the quarries through cut cover diversion canal to increase water sources for Chennai.

Innovations

1. He developed “CRA Technique- a Climate Resilient Water Conserving Root Zone Irrigation Technique to grow trees/climbers faster and yield better with less water, enhance carbon sequestration, reduce carbon emissions and enable drought & climate change mitigation.
2. He developed (jointly) a low cost production technique of Mycorrhiza, Entomopathogenic Nematodes, novel media for faster multiplication of Soil borne beneficial bacteria and fungi for which NIPHM filed claims for patents, which are in advanced stage of processing.
3. As State Relief Commissioner he conceptualized and operationalized an innovative web-GIS based decision support system called “Tamil Nadu System for Multi- hazard Impact Assessment, Alert and Emergency Response Planning and Tracking (TNSMART)” and a mobile application with unique Alarm for preventing loss of lives, sending location specific alerts  for  multiple hazards (developed with the assistance of RIMES).

Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (A body registered with UN) appointed him as an Honorary Advisor for promoting TNSMART & the CRA Technique in African and Asian Regions. He is invited as a Resource Person by  UNICEF, LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration), National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Andhra Pradesh Human Resources Development  Institute,  Anna Institute of Management Tamil Nadu,etc to promote Climate Resilient Agriculture and  Disaster Risk Reduction.

He has been appointed to the National Green Tribunal as an Expert Member with effect from 12^th April, 2021.