Organisation personnel

The people behind the Saraighat Trust.

Saraighat Trust is led by a five-member Board of Trustees and a three-person Executive Team that combines institutional experience with deep local relationships across Assam.

Board of Trustees

A five-member board guiding the Trust’s strategy and governance.

The Board provides oversight on direction, accountability, finance, and partnerships, and brings together academic, public service, and community-grounded leadership.

Rahul MahantaPhD

Founder · President

Associate Professor of Physics at Cotton University and Director of the Centre for Clouds and Climate Change Research (C4R). His work spans climate change, monsoon dynamics, severe convective storms, and the science–society interface of climate risk in Northeast India. He has built interdisciplinary research and climate-education initiatives with academic institutions, government, and communities, and is the author of Present Tense Future Expensive.

Prasanta Sagar ChangmaiIPS

Founder · Vice-President

An Indian Police Service officer currently serving as Inspector General of Police, Northern Range, with a distinguished career across the Assam Police spanning Border, Training and Armed Police, administration, and battalion commands. A poet and translator by passion, he has published Selected Poems and translated Kafka’s The Trial and Camus’ The Fall into English, and is a committed philanthropist supporting social development and public welfare.

Arzoo Dutta

Founder Trustee · Treasurer

A retired development professional with over four decades of experience across integrated development sectors and a registered disability professional. She has worked with national civil society organisations and Government of India institutions, including the Ministries of Human Resource Development and Health and Family Welfare, and served as Senior Consultant for Non-Communicable Diseases with the World Health Organization until taking voluntary retirement in 2024.

Amitav Dutta

Managing Trustee

An agribusiness and value-chain professional with over 20 years of experience in agri-entrepreneurship, incubation, and inclusive market-system development. He has worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Bank-funded programmes, GIZ India, and the Australian Council for Educational Research, and holds an MBA from the University of Queensland and a BSc in Agriculture from Assam Agricultural University. He joined the Board as Managing Trustee on 1 January 2026.

Anju Agarwal Das

Member Trustee

A finance and compliance professional with over 15 years in the development sector, having led financial strategy for programmes supported by DFID, Population Council, UNDP North East, FST, NEN, and the NAAT Foundation. Her expertise spans grant management, budgeting, FCRA and GST compliance, donor reporting, and building transparent, audit-ready financial systems. A Commerce graduate of the University of Delhi, she is based in Guwahati.

Executive team

An embedded executive team running delivery, programmes, and field coordination.

The executive team carries day-to-day responsibility for programme design, partnerships, and direct work with farmer cohorts across the Kaziranga and Kamrup belts.

Runa Rafique

Founder · Executive Director

Founder and Executive Director of Saraighat Trust with over 25 years of leadership experience across education, health, agriculture, and livelihoods. She specialises in livestock-based livelihood systems — particularly scientific piggery and poultry value chains — and has led large-scale programmes supported by NABARD and PM-DevINE across rural and tribal communities in Assam and Meghalaya. Her work advances climate-resilient, market-linked livelihood models, with a sustained focus on women in agriculture and strengthening farmer resilience to climate change.

Plazma Gogoi

Programme Coordinator · Kaziranga

A lead farmer from the founding Chepenakubuwa cohort, now Programme Coordinator for Kaziranga — embedding local leadership at the heart of the women-led poultry programme.

Nurjamal Ali

Programme Coordinator · Kamrup

Programme Coordinator for the Kamrup belt, supporting field coordination, farmer onboarding, and day-to-day delivery close to the communities the Trust serves.