PRAKASH ADHIKARI
GANGTOK, May 25: Over 250 delegates from eleven mountain States and Darjeeling hills today gathered here at Chintan Bhavan in Gangtok to deliberate on issues on water, mountain livelihoods and communities & forests of the Indian Himalayan region.
The delegates along with Parliamentarians and legislators from Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur are participating in the two-day ‘2nd Sustainable Mountain Development Summit’ of Indian Mountain Initiative (IMI) organized by Ecotourism & Conservation Society of Sikkim (ECOSS) and co-organized by Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA).
Five plenary sessions the three themes were held for stakeholders of the eight Northeastern States, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Darjeeling Hills today. More sessions are planned tomorrow including a legislators’ meet on ‘Climate Change and the Need for Legislation’ to evolve consensus on priorities and action plan on issues related to the development of hill regions and communities.
The summit will concluded tomorrow afternoon with the ‘Sikkim Declaration’ that will highlight key concerns of the on the discussed themes, policy prescription, and recommendations to be taken up with relevant authorities at State and Union level.
The summit was inaugurated by Sikkim Legislative Assembly Speaker KT Gyaltsen at Chintan Bhavan.
In his inaugural address, the Speaker highlighted that a majority of world population depends on mountain water, energy and other bio-resources. Hence, issues related to mountains and hill people suffering due to isolation should be taken up at global level, he stressed.
The Speaker expressed his confidence that deliberations during the two-day summit would lay foundation for mountain issues receiving the required attention at national and global levels.
Speaking on the Sikkim context, Gyaltsen underlined the importance of culture to protection of the Hill State’s bio-resources. By the virtue of their culture and eligious sentiments, mountains and lakes are revered by the people here as the bode of deities and activities which defileof such sacred spots are not allowed, he said.
Mount Kanchenjunga is the guardian deity of Sikkim.
The Speaker highlighted the Green steps initiated by Chief Minister Pawan Chamling for protection and conservation of Sikkim’s rich biodiversity. The steps including turning Sikkim into an Organic State in a couple of years, encourage plantation and grazing which goes very well with ecotourism policy of the State.
There is an urgent need for instill a sense of commitment among the citizens for protecting natural resources and this can be achieved through awareness, said Gyaltsen. He suggested replication of Sikkim’s ‘Ten Minutes to Earth’ programme at national and global level.
Under this programme, citizens from all sections of the society in Sikkim undertake a massive plantation drive for ten minutes on a given date during monsoons.
The Lok Sabha member from Sikkim, PD Rai, who is also the summit convener, pointed out the biodiversity conservation activities initiated by the Chief Minister are well entrenched among the people of Sikkim for promotion of ecotourism. Sikkim has been doing well with its biodiversity conservation policies which are in line with the IMI, he said.
More than 90 percent of the invited delegates have arrived to participate in the summit which is a positive indicator and shows their love for mountains and hill heritage, said Rai. He thanked the Chief Minister of Sikkim and his government, governments of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, different organizations, corporate houses and individuals for supporting the summit.
“The summit is for the general issues affecting the mountain States. We are here to get some ideas for protecting our ecology in our State”, said Arunachal Pradesh Tourism minister Pema Khandu to reporters.
In his 25 minutes long keynote address, the Director General of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) based at Katmandu, Dr David Molden gave a presentation on mountain, climate change and rapidly diminishing hill bio-resources and energy generating capability. Forty percent of the world depends on mountain water resources and these resources are being stretched due to growing population, land degradation, climate change, shrinking of 56,000 odd glaciers, urbanization and energy requirements, he said.
At the same time, Dr Molden was of the view that mountains do offer solution to the issue of water scarcity. The vulnerability of hill people to floods and droughts can be reduced by early warning systems and generation of clean energy through hydro power can address the black carbon issue, he said.
The ICIMOD Director General said that improved hill landscape can avoid shifting cultivation and sought value to be given for resources protected by the hill people. He said that the existing data gaps on mountains must be addressed and urged for placing the mountain issues as a global agenda.
The Chief Secretary of Sikkim, Karma Gyatso placed the welcome address where he appreciated the initiative taken by the Lok Sabha member for bringing such important seminar in Sikkim and further congratulated ECOSS for organizing it. He expressed his hope that the outcome in the seminar would help Sikkim and other mountain states.
Sustainable mountain development has always been the vision of the Sikkim government and our work has been acknowledged in and outside the country, said Gyatso.
The inaugural function concluded with the presentation of vote of thanks by ECOSS chairman Loday Chungyalpa. This was followed by plenary session of the delegates on water, mountain livelihoods and communities & forests of the Indian Himalayan region.
IMI is a civil society movement that aims to bring stakeholders of the mountain and hill States on a common platform to come together to discuss issues related to the development of the mountains and hill regions and communities, evolve consensus on priorities and action plan.
This summit is an annual event of the IMI to bring together to discuss a few pre-decided themes that are vital to the development and well being of the region.
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