Himalayan communities are important stakeholders: Khanduri
NEW DELHI, 22 Mar: “Himalayan communities are important stakeholders, and must be included in the policy spaces,” said Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Speaker Rita Khanduri during the annual Meet of the Mountain States (MoMS), organised under the Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) on 22 March, coinciding with the World Water Day.
The event, themed ‘Water resources in the Himalaya: Disaster resilience and teduction’, brings together policymakers, elected representatives, and partners of the IMI and other relevant agencies to jointly work on priority actions related to key mountain issues.
Khanduri in her address spoke on “the urgent need for bridging research with policy and practice, and the need to fall back on good traditional practices with strong community engagement.”
She highlighted that “tourism pressures are also having a major impact in the Himalaya,” and dwelt on the issue of “limiting numbers in ecologically fragile areas.”
Padma Shri awardee Dr Eklabya Sharma, who is currently the strategic adviser and distinguished fellow at ATREE, highlighted how mountains face the brunt of climate change, “and with a 1.5 degree Centigrade rise in temperature, Himalayan glaciers would lose 1/3rd of their volume by 2100.”
Evidence of this is being witnessed by mountain states, he said, recalling the recent Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and the Darjeeling-Kalimpong disasters.
Speaking on solutions, Dr Sharma recommended “high-altitude monitoring, early warning systems for disasters, river basin planning with zonal action, and an integrated approach for sustainability.”
A technical session on ‘Linkage between Himalayan geology, river system disaster and disaster response’ was chaired by Dr Durgesh Pant, DG-UCOST. Dr Ashim Sattar of IIT Bhubaneswar shared his research experience from Sikkim of monitoring the glacial lakes.
Executive Councillor from Ladakh Hill Council Dr Smriti Basnett also spoke.
The second session focused on evidence-based DRR and the way forward. It was chaired by former member secretary of the Finance Commission (FC), Arvind Mehta.
Mehta stressed on “the importance of having a river basin approach, with stringent mitigation measures with community participation put in place in all development interventions.”
Sushil Ramola emphasised on “acknowledging the socio-ecological fragility of the mountains that should reflect in devolution of funds in the 16th FC to mountain states.”
IMI president Ramesh Negi and IMI secretary Roshan Rai also spoke.
The meet this year was supported by the government of Arunachal Pradesh, the Uttarakhand Council for Science & Technology, and the Sustainable Development Forum of Uttarakhand.