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Learning from disasters in the Indian Himalayas

07.04.2014

Lessons learned from the Uttarakhand Disaster, one of the biggest flooding disasters in the history of India, were discussed at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, India, on 26 March 2014. Govind Singh Kunjwal, Speaker of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, told the participants, who come from the 12 mountain states of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), that humans have the unique command to learn from experiences and use learning for future planning and action, especially when disaster has occurred.

Knowledge sharing topped the agenda and the ways research institutions can help generate collaborative efforts for disaster management was brought up by Padam Parkash Bhojvaid, Director of the Forest Research Institute. Developing synergy among the institutes working in the Himalayan states can contribute in building the capacities of rural communicates in the area of disaster, he said.

Organized by the Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA), the Centre for Ecology and Development (CEDAR) in collaboration with the Regional Economic Development (RED) Programme of German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the event saw the launch of a book on Uttarakhand disaster learning and a book of vulnerability maps of the 12 mountain states.

Subroto Roy, Programme Manager, Uttarakhand RED- GIZ, told the group that efforts will be made to share the knowledge products with the state governments and other IHR stakeholders.

Other panelists and speakers included Surendra Pratap Singh, B. K. Joshi, Pushkin Phartiyal, Subrat Sharma, Rajesh Thadani and Vishal Singh. 

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