Vikas Kharage

1. Assistant Collector, Brahmapuri, Dist-Chandrapur (1996–98)
2. Chief Executive Officer at Nagpur and Chandrapur (1998–99)
3. Collector and District Magistrate at Yavatmal & Aurangabad (1999-02, 2004–07)
4. Joint Commissioner, Sales Tax, Mumbai (2002–03)
5. Deputy Secretary, GAD, Mantralaya (2003–04)
6. Director, Ground water Surveys & Development Agency, Maharashtra (2007–09)
7. Commissioner (Family Welfare) and Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission, Maharashtra (2010–13)
8. Managing Director, Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (2013–14)
9. Secretary to Chief Minister of Maharashtra (2014)
10. Additional Municipal Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (2014)
11. Principal Secretary, Forests & Land Acquisition, Govt. of Maharashtra (January 2015-December 2019)
12. Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister (9 December 2019 to Present)

Receiving Satyen Mitra National Literacy Award at the hands of Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Hon. Prime Minister of India in 2001

After working as CEO at Chandrapur, he was posted as Collector at Yavatmal, a challenging district with 16 tehsils. He strived hard to promote adult education and increasing the literacy rates in the district. His work has been recognized and awarded at the hands of the then Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi.

Working as a Collector at Aurangabad, he handled many issues which focused on eradicating child labor. In his INDUS Child Labor project,[4] 4000 children were withdrawn from labor and mainstreamed in education. This got him great recognition in the country. When the Godavari river was flooded, he undertook the task of rescuing and rehabilitating the people there, with the help and involvement of other departments from the government and communities.

Receiving Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award at the hands of Shri. Vilasrao Deshmukh, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 2006

His work has ensured communal harmony in Aurangabad which was recognized and he was awarded with the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award,[5] for maintaining peace and communal harmony, through the hands of the then CM of Maharashtra, Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Kharage was posted as Director, Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency in July 2007. He initiated a design study and commenced a Dual Hand Pump System for drinking water purpose. This pump had the unique ability to run on electricity and solar energy, with manual option available as a backup. He made special efforts for the awareness of groundwater resource, its development and judicial use. Through this scheme, rainwater harvesting becomes mandatory. Pumped water through a single-phase submersible pump is installed in the existing high yielding borewell and the water is stored in a 5,000-litre tank and water supply is provided to each house through a tap. He also contributed to mitigate the drinking water crisis in the Pune Municipal Corporation in 2008–09.

Due to Kharage's initiatives, state's first groundwater study was conducted in Ichalkaranji Municipal Council area. The council was given several remedial options to tackle some groundwater issues. The organization's work was nominated by the state for Prime Minister's Excellence Award in Organization category in 2009. In his dissertation at the University of Sussex, titled "Organisational Change: From Blue Print approach Organization to Community-Oriented Organisation, with a case study of Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency, Government of Maharashtra, India", he talks about how and why organization changes to adopt participatory approach.. The dissertation also probed the challenge of institutionalizing changes and make them sustainable in the long run.

Kharage has implemented, monitored and supervised various maternal and child health related programs while working as a Commissioner (Family Welfare) and Mission Director at National Rural Health Mission. He worked on improving health indicators such as IMR (reducing it from 34 to 25), MMR (from 104 to 67) & improving the sex ratio at birth (from 883 to 934). He also contributed in designing, developing and implementing '108 Health Ambulance service' in Maharashtra, where currently 972 BLS and ALS ambulances are in operation. He also commenced the paperless working of his office and gained the identity of first e-office in the state of Maharashtra. These efforts were also recognized when he was conferred the state level first prize of Rs. 10 Lakhs in Rajiv Gandhi Prashaskiya Gatimanta Abhiyan Award at the hands of the CM of Maharashtra in 2012. He also received an appreciation from the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for leading the rescue team of Maharashtra officials during the Uttarakhand cloud burst disaster in June 2013. Around 3000 Maharashtra pilgrims and tourists were rescued and sent back to state safely.

Bamboo sector was a restricted domain with lesser development and knowledge to the community. However, with Hon’ble Forest Minister Shri Sudhir Mungantiwar's eminent leadership and Kharage's initiatives, as a Secretary (Forests), Government of Maharashtra established state's first Bamboo Research and Training Centre at Chandrapur. Today, no permission is required for planting, cutting and transporting bamboo. This move has encouraged the bamboo plantation transforming it from a forest product to an agricultural product. Massive plantation, harvesting and transportation has been going on due to such liberalization policy. The area under bamboo cultivation in the state has remarkably increased to 4,462 km² (1,723 sq mi). Initially, the use of bamboo was known only in making handicrafts. Subsequently, the use of bamboo in various sectors such as in industry, construction, textile and for making furniture was acknowledged. Also, the use of bamboo shoots as a food product was also recognized. The Forest Department also offers a 2-year diploma course to develop skilled expertise in bamboo plantation. Maharashtra is the only state in the country to start such academic course. Further, Maharashtra Bamboo Promotion Foundation in partnership with Tata Trust was established under the section (8) of the company's Act. It works on the principle of "Not for Profit", promotes and facilitate various activities such as organizing bamboo bazar, offering consultancy for construction of bamboo houses, industrial usage, furniture making etc.[7] To revitalize the bamboo sector, the Forest Department initiated the activation of Bamboo Handicraft and Art Unit (BHAU) in 3 universities of Maharashtra namely, Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Savitribai Phule Pune University and Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth at Rahuri.[8] The unit aims to impart training and skills to the students who can then work into the bamboo sector.[9]

Mega plantation drive was launched under the leadership of Honourable Forest Minister Shri Sudhir Mungantiwar, in 2015 to mitigate adverse effects of global warming and maintain ecological balance. Forest Department took the efforts of going an extra mile to plant 50 crore trees in 3 years during "Plantation Week" celebrated between 1 July and 7 July every year. The record making plantation of 2.82 crore on a single day of 1 July 2016 was achieved and has been acknowledged by the Limca Book of Record.[10] The Prime Minister himself mentioned the tree plantation efforts made by the Forest Department in his "Mann Ki Baat" program on 31 July and appreciated the campaign as a People's Movement.

Kharage insisted for the due attention for aftercare survival of plantation which is being monitored by the IT board which developed an application along with geotagging of the saplings making this activity open to the public domain. Transparency is maintained in the system.

The efforts of Maharashtra in various sectors are officially recognized by the Government of India. Following are the four areas where the state of Maharashtra is leading and also documented in the "Status Report on Forest for 2017" at All India level, published by "Forest Survey of India" in February, 2018:

• Tree cover in Non-Forest Area has increased by 273 km² (105 sq mi)
• The Mangrove cover has increased by 82 km² (32 sq mi)
• Water bodies in Forest Area has gone up by 432 km² (167 sq mi)
• Increase in the Bamboo plantation area by 4,462 km² (1,723 sq mi)

According to the Indian Forest Survey Report 2019 released by the Central Government, the area of forest cover in Maharashtra's forest area has increased from 9,831 to 10,806 km² (3,796 to 4,172 sq mi). This is an increase of 975 km² (376 sq mi). Maharashtra ranks first in the forest cover in forestry. The forest cover of the state has also increased by 96 km² (37 sq mi).

• The Mangrove cover has increased by 82 km² (32 sq mi)

Increase in mangroves is mainly seen in Raigad, Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Maharashtra stands second in the country in mangrove cover.

In the Indian Forest Survey report from 2014 to 2019, a 147,814-hectare (365,260-acre) area has been announced as Reserved Forests in Maharashtra. Owing to this, Maharashtra has received great name and respect, in terms of environment balance and protection and this work has been mentioned in the IFSR. In a first of its kind, a 24-hour toll free helpline number 1926 called 'Hello Forest' has been set up to provide information regarding plantations, protection and mass awareness. The Forest Department has created a mobile application called 'My Plants' to record details of the plantations such as numbers, species and location into the Forest Department's database. To encourage public participation, the SFD has initiated the 'Maharashtra Harit Sena or Green Army'.

Earlier, the counting of the tiger or the chances of a tiger sighting could be guessed by their pugmarks. By using this method, their counting was inaccurate.  Having had this in mind, National Tiger Conservation Institute of the Central Government along with the Wildlife Institute of India, formulated a new way for tiger census in 2006. According to the India Tiger Estimation – 2018, the count of tigers in Maharashtra sums up to 312 in total across all districts. The Tiger Census is done every 4 years.

During the posting as Principal Secretary (Forests), Vikas Kharage headed a Committee (later popularly known as Kharage Committee) appointed to study the issues of Moha flowers and make recommendations to the Government on liberalisations of Moha flower trade. Accepting all the recommendations of Kharage Committee, the collection, storage, transportation and trade of Moha flowers is now liberalised removing various permissions required earlier. Excise department has issued a Government Resolution (GR) accordingly mentioning the acceptance of the Kharage Committee's recommendations. This decision will be mainly beneficial to the tribal community, who are engaged in the Moha flower collection, to raise their incomes.