ASDMA hosted workshop on Extreme Heat and Building Climate Resilience in Assam
Guwahati, Rongili Barta- The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) in collaboration with All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) hosted a pivotal workshop on “Extreme Heat and Building Climate Resilience in Assam” today at Srimanta Sankaradeva International Auditorium, Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, Panjabari, Guwahati. The programme was graced by Shri Keshab Mahanta, Hon’ble Minister, Revenue and Disaster Management Department as the chief guest.
In recent years, the events like extreme heat, draught etc. affecting the State in adverse way. In view of the above, ASDMA started an initiative through this workshop to discuss the sensitive issues related to the extreme weather events and climate and disaster specific issues followed by the awareness on the same with the all concerned stakeholders including students. The day long workshop has brought together the other stakeholders including experts, government officials, local communities, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to discuss strategies and good practices to address the extreme heat risks faced by Assam and the broader North Eastern region of India.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Mahanta raised the concern for increasing the heatwave incidents in recent years which would affect the daily lives of the people in the state. To cop up with this new hazard in north-eastern region, the government and the related stakeholders need to be collaborated. The exchange of ideas through these types of workshops would definitely help the government to discuss and explore mitigation measures for that. For students studying in various educational institutions, Shri Mahanta suggested for green codes for cooling effect in school and college buildings. He also mentioned for local level innovative initiatives which would help in reducing the affect. The collaborative actions in local, district, state and regional level would benefit the government to prepare a way to mitigate the threat.
Relating to this, Shri G D Tripathi, Chief Executive Officer, ASDMA informed the gathering about the innovative step of ASDMA regarding a competition recently launched on ASDMA Foundation day on March 23, 2025 on climate modelling named “PRKRITI: Predicting Resilience through knowledge driven research using integrative technological innovation” which would enhance local-level understanding of climate change impacts and mitigation strategies and encourage young minds an professionals to develop climate models based on real-world data. The details of the competition would be available in ASDMA website very soon.
A small booklet on “Key Action areas for addressing extreme heat in the Asia-Pacific: Lessons from regional platforms” was also released by Minister Shri Mahanta and other delegates of the programme.
The day long workshop included 4 technical sessions graced by different experts from state and national level like Mr. Mihir R. Bhatt, Director, AIDMI, Dr. PG Dhar Chakrabarti, IAS, Professor, Ramkrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational & Research Institute, Dr. Abhyant Tiwari, Lead, NRDC, India, Shri Komkar Dulom, Director, Arunachal State Disaster Management Authority, Suman Deb, Capacity Building Officer, Tripura State Disaster Management Authority, Dr. Akhil Srivastava, Scientist, India Meteorological Department (IMD), GoI, Dr. Sunit Das, Scientist, IMD, Assam, Gaurav Godhwani, Director, Civic Data Lab, Dr. Gouri Sankar Bhunia, Geo-spatial expert, Vassar Labs, Mukunda Upadhyay, Technical Expert, ASDMA, Biprajit Paul Choudhury, Field Officer, Cachar DDMA etc. on various topics of understanding heat in local and national perspectives.
The workshop was also attended by the Secretary and Addl. Chief Executive Officer, ASDMA, senior officials of the departments of govt. of Assam, and field level officials of ASDMA along with the studenst of various educational institutions.