EPAC
Foundation
IC Environment Protection and Anti-Corruption Foundation
Ishwar Chander is the founder and President of the IC Environment Protection and Anti-Corruption Foundation, which he established on 7 August 2020. He leads the foundation on a single conviction: that environmental destruction and corruption are not two separate problems, but two symptoms of the same disease — the belief that what belongs to everyone can be taken by anyone strong enough to take it.
He is known for a direct, unsentimental style of leadership. When he found a forest burning at Anni in Himachal Pradesh and no one coming to put it out, he did not file a report and move on. He recorded the scene, said plainly that "the forest is on fire and the administration is sleeping," and then went and fought the fire with his team.
Alongside the foundation, he heads Bhole Shankar Enterprises Private Limited, an IT company — a dual role he treats not as a contradiction but as a proof: that business acumen and social responsibility can share the same person.
The IC Environment Protection and Anti-Corruption Foundation was established on 7 August 2020, with a single vision and a commitment to making a lasting impact on India's environmental and societal landscape. It began as a response to a pressing need: concerted, organised effort to safeguard the environment and combat corruption at the same time.
In the early stages, the focus was on raising awareness. Ishwar Chander recognised early that environmental degradation and corruption are intricately linked and demand a unified approach. A forest is rarely lost by accident. It is lost because someone profits from its loss and someone else is paid to look away.
Under his leadership the organisation has grown into a dynamic force, running nationwide initiatives that go well beyond planting trees and filing legal actions. The aim he set is cultural: a shift towards sustainability and integrity as everyday habits rather than occasional gestures.
On 15 June 2024, Ishwar Chander was travelling to Anni in Himachal Pradesh. He came across a family in difficulty and stopped. He arranged help so that they could get an electricity supply, and contacted the local administration directly to resolve their problems.
On the return journey he witnessed a forest fire. Disturbed by what he saw — and by the absence of any response — he documented it and raised the alarm publicly. When the initial response did not come, he and his team coordinated with local authorities and worked to extinguish the fire themselves.
The episode captures the two halves of how he leads: help the person in front of you, and do not wait for permission to protect what belongs to everyone.
"मेरे प्यारे देशवासियों, मैं आपका ध्यान प्रकृति की तरफ़ आकर्षित करना चाहता हूँ। हम इस तापमान को कम कर सकते हैं, अगर हम ज़्यादा से ज़्यादा पेड़-पौधे लगाते हैं। जल के बिना जीवन सम्भव नहीं है — यह जानने के बाद भी हम लोग पेड़-पौधों का रोपण नहीं करते हैं।"
"हर साल जंगलों में आग लगती है, लेकिन उसको बुझाने के लिये कोई नहीं आता। एक पेड़ को तैयार होने में कम से कम 15 से 20 साल का समय लग जाता है। अगर यही आग हमारे सेब के बाग़ीचे में लग जाये तो हम आधी रात को भी इसको बुझा देते हैं — और अगर यही आग जंगलों में लगती है तो कोई बुझाने के लिये नहीं आता।"
"हिमाचल प्रदेश की आबादी 70 लाख से ज़्यादा है। एक व्यक्ति अगर आज सिर्फ़ एक पेड़ लगाता है, तो सीधे 70 लाख पेड़ उगेंगे। पेड़ लगाओ, सृष्टि बचाओ।"
— जय हिन्द, जय भारत 🙏 अध्यक्ष: ईश्वर चन्द्र
Ishwar Chander's leadership extends across two demanding roles. Through the foundation he pursues environmental stewardship and anti-corruption advocacy. Through Bhole Shankar Enterprises Private Limited he builds technology solutions in a competitive commercial field.
He treats the combination as evidence rather than a compromise. The discipline that sustains a working business — accountability, transparency, delivering what was promised — is precisely what an anti-corruption movement asks of public life.
That approach has carried the foundation's work into conversation with those who hold formal responsibility for India's forests, including Shri Subodh Uniyal, Minister of Environment and Forests. His position has been consistent: an NGO alone cannot protect the environment, and neither can the administration alone.
If every person with twenty feet of ground plants a single sapling, seventy lakh trees follow in Himachal alone — and the water returns with them.
We extinguish a fire in our own orchard at midnight. The forest deserves the same urgency — it belongs to all of us.
Where nature is harmed for private gain, file a complaint with evidence. The foundation pursues it through the proper legal channels.
Animal
Recycling
Agriculture
Ocean Life
Charity
Climate Change