Themes
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Floodplain Ecology and Disaster Management
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Conservation of freshwater turtles and their habitats
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Community stewardship of freshwater habitats
Freshwater Research and Conservation
Northeast India is extremely water-rich, with several rivers and streams crisscrossing the entire biodiverse region. Freshwater habitats, especially rivers and wetlands, have immense socio-ecological, cultural, and economic importance, supporting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people who live along them. Presently, India's freshwater habitats face an array of challenges including overexploitation, scarcity, pollution, alterations in flow patterns, degradation of habitats and connectivity, and the impacts of climate change, which manifest as increased occurrences of droughts and floods.
Through this working group we aim to develop and strengthen collaborations between local communities, researchers, designers, filmmakers, and science communicators to increase research and awareness on the fate of freshwater habitats, their threatened aquatic biodiversity, and the need for their conservation at site-specific scales. This group also aims to improve awareness on flood disaster management and build informed and prepared communities across different socio-economic strata, which is an urgent need of the hour.
Current Project
Assam Flood Toolkit Project
A flood toolkit will be developed which will be an online repository that serves as a collection of resources for local people of Assam, front-line staff, researchers, and social work practitioners. The toolkit will provide access to all publicly available flood information and resources, as well as practical infographics and guidance on disaster management to address flooding events. This toolkit will help improve the adaptive capability and resilience of communities and promote the wellbeing of all people across all socio-economic and ethnic hierarchies.
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Assam sees annual flooding events, and has seen around 15 extreme flooding events since 1950. It is predicted that there will be more frequent and intense flooding events without even taking into consideration any effects of human-driven climate change. By creating actionable resources that are accessible to all people, we can help communities combat and adapt to flooding events at local scales.
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In the future, the freshwater working group will also create manuals and guides to flood stewardship by communities. The group will also work towards documenting different community traditional knowledge systems and flood management skills, to co-create flood preparedness solutions which will directly benefit communities in flood prone areas of Assam.
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Team Members: Anuja Mital (Project Lead), Tahaj Hussain, Jitendra Deka, Jyotsna Nag, Pratiti Majumder, Parixit Kafley
Team
