Mountain development summit in November

SNS, DARJEELING, 28 FEBRUARY 21 : The 10th edition of the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) is set to take place in Darjeeling Kalimpong this November, with the SMDS Baton for the summit handed over to the Darjeeling Himalaya Initiative (DHI) which will host it, in Kalimpong recently.

The summit, which started in the year 2011 at Nainital in Uttarkhand, brings together people from the Indian Himalaya region and is hosted in a different mountain state every year.

"We believe that the summit will provide critical conversation spaces that will contribute to the sustainable development pathways to Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the Indian Himalayan region," said Praful Rao, the President, DHI which is the state chapter of the Integrated Mountain Initiative, which organises such summits.

The IMI is a civil society-led forum working across the Indian Himalayan region, bringing mountain concerns to the centre stage in regional, national, and global agendas through sustained and informed dialogue among all stakeholders. It also enables action by following up on the deliberations with policy makers, implementers and communities.

The Summit each year brings together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss relevant themes warranting immediate attention of the mountains. Conclusions and recommendations emerging from this exercise are pursued by the IMI for actionable outputs. This year, the theme of the Summit is "One Health and resilient mountains."

"One health is a very pertinent theme, given the unprecedented situation brought about by COVID -19 in the world," said Dr Sarala Khaling, Executive Committee Member, DHI.