Need for integrated Himalayan action plan with early warning system, says report

Dehradun, Oct 15 (IANS) Favouring an integrated Himalayan action plan with a multi-hazard early warning and strict land-use regulation to minimise the impact of the climate crisis, a new report on Wednesday reiterated that the Himalayas "are at a critical juncture where climate change and unregulated human development are converging to create unprecedented disaster risk”.

The report, 'Enhancing Multi-hazard Early Warning and Resilient Settlement in the Himalayan Region', was released at the stakeholder consultation in Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

The report suggests an integrated action plan with community participation, stressing that traditional, fragmented disaster management must be replaced by an integrated multi-hazard warning system linked to enforceable land-use and livelihood strategies.

The analysis highlights that while climatic factors like accelerated glacial retreat, cloudbursts, and extreme rainfall intensify hazards like glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and landslides, human actions, particularly unregulated construction and settlement expansion in high-risk zones, are drastically magnifying the population's exposure and vulnerability.

The result is a reinforcing cycle of risk that threatens to escalate humanitarian and economic losses across states like Uttarakhand.

Drawing lessons from international models in Japan, Switzerland, and Norway, the report calls for accountability and commitment to reduce preventable disaster deaths in the Himalayas to zero by 2030.

It advocates for immediate short-term deployment of low-cost, real-time sensors (for rainfall, soil moisture, and lake levels) and robust mobile-based alert systems, which must be seamlessly integrated with long-term structural reforms like hazard-sensitive land-use planning and planned relocation.

Specifically, the report favours to design a robust and adaptive early warning system capable of addressing a spectrum of hazards, including landslides, flash floods, cloudbursts, and glacial lake outburst floods, integrating real-time climatic, hydrological, and geospatial data with community-level response mechanisms and to evaluate and recommend strategies for regulating settlements, optimising land use, and implementing planned relocations in high-risk zones, thereby reducing hazard exposure while promoting climate-resilient urban and rural development.

The report suggests establishing a Himalayan Resilience Mission to coordinate a phased, decade-long plan, beginning with dense sensor deployment and relocation of pilots in the highest-risk communities.

--IANS

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