The Ford Foundation has vacated its long-standing office at 55, Lodhi Estate, where it had operated since the 1960s, after the Centre initiated eviction proceedings following the expiry of its lease, The Tribune has learnt.The premises have now been allotted to two India-led international initiatives, the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) and the Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA), both launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023.The Land and Development Office under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) initiated eviction proceedings against the foundation in 2025 after its lease for the property expired. However, a senior MoHUA official told The Tribune that the foundation “did not object to the government asking them to vacate” and no forceful eviction was carried out.Sources said the foundation moved out earlier this year, with the shifting of its entire Delhi operation completed by the last week of March. Its official address stands at Level 8, DLF Centre, Sansad Marg, instead of Lodhi Estate.The Tribune visited the foundation’s new office to ascertain the reason for the relocation. Although staff members were present, the office manager, speaking from behind a locked door, said: “There’s no one inside, we can’t talk.” Security personnel, however, confirmed that the foundation’s office had been relocated to the building and that its staff was operating from there.The development is significant given the foundation’s long association with the capital and its role in India’s development story.On Monday, the Directorate of Estates under MoHUA allotted the ground and first floors of the former Ford Foundation premises to the IBCA and GBA. The IBCA, a multi-country and multi-agency coalition for the conservation of big cats, was launched by PM Modi in year 2023 and is currently operating from a house in Shanti Niketan. The GBA, also launched by Modi during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi in 2023, currently operates from Sanrakshan Bhawan in Bhikaji Cama Place.The Lodhi Estate building itself has considerable architectural significance. The Ford Foundation headquarters was designed by American architect Joseph Stein, who also designed the India Habitat Centre and India International Centre. The complex has also housed the United Nations and its agencies, some of which continue to occupy parts of it.The Ford Foundation established its New Delhi office in 1952 at the invitation of the Government of India. In the decades after Independence, it supported several major Indian institutions and development programmes, including the Five-Year Plans, agriculture and education initiatives.According to the foundation, it provided foundational grants to the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata, early research support to IIT Kharagpur, and support to the Indian Institute of Public Administration and Punjab Agricultural University. It also backed initiatives linked to the Green Revolution, community development and the self-help group movement.The foundation’s relationship with the Indian government, however, has not always been without controversy.In 2015, the Ministry of Home Affairs placed it in the prior approval category after allegations by the Gujarat government that it was funding “anti-India” activities of NGOs associated with activist Teesta Setalvad. The move meant Indian organisations receiving Ford Foundation funds required government clearance. The MHA removed the foundation from the category in March 2016, ahead of Modi’s visit to the US.The foundation did not respond to The Tribune’s queries on its eviction, relocation or the reason for vacating the Lodhi Estate premises. MoHUA also did not respond to detailed questions.The Centre’s decision to reclaim a property occupied by the foundation for decades, and subsequently hand over the space to two international initiatives launched by PM Modi himself, has therefore raised questions about why the premises were sought back after such a long association, particularly when government officials maintain that the foundation did not resist the move.