Recently, the Uttarakhand Council of Science and Technology (UCOST) organised a workshop in Delhi regarding climate resilience and disaster management, with a focus on Himalayan states. The workshop was attended by eminent scientists in the field of disaster management and protagonists of issues related to climate resilience.
In 2023, the state of Uttarakhand organised an international conference on the same topic in Dehradun, where participants from about 50 countries discussed the issue of climate resilience.
Based on these deliberations, common action points were agreed upon and announced as the “Dehradun Declaration.” This initiative by the state government of Uttarakhand in bringing stakeholders together for such an emerging issue of climate resilience is truly praiseworthy.
Why has the Uttarakhand government taken such an initiative? One reason could be that it has the second-largest Himalayan boundary after Arunachal Pradesh and, secondly, it caters to a significant portion of the hinterland in northern India, where vast numbers of people visit the state for tourism, religious purposes (Char Dham Yatra, Gomukh, etc.), adventure, and other activities.
This creates undue pressure on the economy and the fragile nature of the ecosystem, which has been a matter of serious concern for the state. Forest fires, landslides, cloudbursts, and declining glaciers significantly impact the lives of common people in the state and place a strain on the budget required to address such eventualities.
Organising international workshops for Himalayan states aims to involve neighbouring countries and international organisations to create the necessary awareness and sensitise everyone to the immediate need for collaborative action. This includes adopting best practices, promoting the use of technology, and supporting innovation through data and AI to design pre-emptive and post-incident strategies and approaches to reduce damage to life, flora, fauna, and livelihoods.
The salient features of the Dehradun Declaration are:
- Strengthening Preparedness: Including disaster resilience in school and college curricula, framing regulations to protect vulnerable sections, designing special financial tools, and creating a framework to promote the “science of survival.”
- Protecting the Himalayan Ecosystem: Blending indigenous knowledge and traditional community best practices, designing nature-based solutions, engaging communities in monitoring related projects, and fostering institutional collaboration.
- Empowering Communities: Implementing community-based early warning systems, educating communities and providing them with tools and infrastructure to address local challenges, strengthening and diversifying livelihoods, and promoting partnerships and networks of like-minded people at the local level.
- Policy Integration: Establishing an Institute of Disaster Management and a global centre of excellence in climate resilience, designing policy interventions based on national and international best practices, and creating an integrated framework for close coordination among state departments/agencies, central agencies/departments, NGOs, and international organisations.
- Promoting Innovation: Encouraging start-ups and promoting entrepreneurship in designing and developing tools and technologies to address issues concerning climate resilience and Himalayan disasters.
The Delhi workshop was a follow-up to the Dehradun Declaration and was attended by scholars and experts in disaster management, representatives of international organisations, and corporates promoting such activities as part of their CSR initiatives. Everyone appreciated the Uttarakhand government’s initiative to bring like-minded individuals and organisations onto a single platform, emphasising that the protection of the Himalayan region is an issue that affects everyone.
The Himalayas are often referred to as the “Soul of India,” and some scientists regard them as the “Third Pole.” A consensus emerged at the workshop that everyone needs to contribute to protecting and safeguarding this fragile and ecologically rich ecosystem. The issue of increasing tourism and excessive demand on natural resources to promote development must be collectively addressed in a manner that satisfies all stakeholders.
Participants also emphasised that the damage to the ecosystem of Himalayan states is primarily caused by outsiders, not by indigenous communities. The state needs to formulate regulations to prevent such damage, including controlling the use of plastic, promoting organic farming, imposing a green tax on vehicles, and extensively training and engaging local communities to design acceptable practices and methods for prevention and post-incident damage reduction.
In the recently concluded COP 29 in Baku, one agenda was to make countries agree on a fund to address climate change issues. It was proposed that developed countries commit to higher budget allocations to incentivise developing and poorer countries to take measures to reduce carbon emissions. Although some commitments were made, they were not in line with the desired formulation for working out long-term sustainable solutions to the emerging challenges of climate resilience.
Similarly, within a country, developed (and often more polluting) states should contribute to a fund to support backward and poorer states in addressing climate resilience challenges. This principle can also apply to compensating panchayats by urban areas, especially those promoting large-scale plantation, protecting forests, and not only being carbon-neutral but carbon-surplus.
Compensation could be facilitated through extensive use of carbon credit and green credit schemes, focusing on incentivising communities that promote carbon reduction through innovative and traditional methods.
The example of the Sikkim government is worth replicating. It has supplied necessary equipment and tools to every panchayat and trained them for local-level disaster management. This approach is far more responsive than the existing system of state machinery at the district level, which reacts to crises after they occur.
There is also a need to train volunteers at every village level, connect them through a centralised platform, and support their ability to deliver various services to citizens, thereby building community confidence and credibility.
This would promote entrepreneurship, with individuals serving as “Climate Yodhas” (warriors) to help the state implement schemes and programmes for climate resilience, including promoting diversified livelihood opportunities. Such a pool of incentive-driven volunteers in every village could be integral to the state’s initiative to make climate resilience a community-led movement, driven by and acceptable to local communities.
