ABU DHABI, Oct 13 (IPS) – As global conservation leaders gather in Abu Dhabi for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, communities in the hills of Darjeeling, thousands of kilometers away, are still counting their losses. In early October, heavy rains caused deadly landslides that buried houses, blocked major roads and killed several people. The devastation has once again shown how vulnerable India’s mountain regions are to extreme weather.
The Congress, which meets every four years, began on October 9, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This flagship global forum unites more than 10,000 conservation experts, policymakers and stakeholders to advance nature-based solutions amid escalating climate and biodiversity crises. Key agendas of the Congress include localizing climate finance, nature-positive development and post-2025 biodiversity targets, with sessions on Himalayan resilience.
On October 4 and 5, Darjeeling was hit by heavy late monsoon rains, which caused several landslides in the tea-producing district of West Bengal. At the same time, continuous rains from October 3 flooded large parts of the Terai and Dooars regions of north Bengal. On October 10th the death toll had risen to 40, with thousands forced into relief camps in Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Kalimpong.
The recent landslides in Darjeeling and floods in northern Bengal have killed dozens of people and displaced thousands Tirtha Prasad Saikiadirector of NEADS, these disasters are more than just statistics. They are an urgent wake-up call.
Speaking to IPS on the sidelines of the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, Saikia drew on years of experience on the front lines of responding to floods and climate disasters in Assam and Northeast India. His message is clear: India’s vulnerable hill areas need immediate action, combining nature-based solutions, local wisdom like Meghalaya’s living root bridges and fair climate finance.
He believes Congress provides a critical platform to advance these priorities, ensuring that vulnerable communities and ecosystems can survive and thrive as climate risks escalate. Read excerpts from the conversation below.
IPS: How do you interpret this event, IUCN WCC 2025, from a conservation and climate resilience perspective?
Saiia: The IUCN Congress in Abu Dhabi is perfectly timed to advance the global conservation agenda, emphasizing nature-based solutions and integrated resilience. This focus is crucial for mountain and river ecosystems, where protecting biodiversity is inextricably linked to ensuring human security.
IPS: What do such disasters reveal about the state of preparedness in India’s hill areas?
Saiia: They reveal predominantly reactive systems, poor enforcement of hazard zoning, weak early warnings for micro-watersheds and infrastructure placed in high-risk locations, quickly turning extreme rainfall into catastrophe.
IPS: Do you see similar patterns of vulnerability emerging in your work in northeast India?
Saiia: Yes, the Northeast shows the same mix of steep, fragile terrain, increasing extreme rainfall, deforestation and unplanned hill clearing, causing repeated landslides, erosion and compound flooding.
IPS: What makes Darjeeling and other areas in the eastern Himalayas so vulnerable to landslides and floods?
Saiia: A natural baseline of steep slopes, young/unstable geology and intense orographic rainfall combined with human pressures such as hill clearing, vegetation clearing and river construction that weaken the resilience of the slopes and the river.
IPS: To what extent is this crisis caused by human action versus changing climate patterns?
Saiia: It’s a combination of both. Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall, which is often the trigger. But local human actions such as deforestation, unplanned road construction and illegal construction remove natural buffers and increase exposure. These factors work together to turn what could have been manageable events into major disasters.
IPS: Do current development models in India’s hill areas take ecological limits into account?
Sakia: Not enough! Many development choices prioritize short-term growth (tourism, housing, roads) without rigorous watershed assessments, undermining long-term resilience.
IPS: What immediate challenges do local communities face when a disaster strikes (displacement, livelihoods, relief)?
Saiia: Rapid displacement, loss of homes and farmland, disconnected connectivity blocking aid, loss of seasonal incomes, and acute health and sanitation risks are immediate and serious.
IPS: Are there examples of community-led efforts or local knowledge that are reducing these risks?
Saiia: Yes, Meghalaya’s living root bridges, stilt houses and granaries among the Mishing communities and other indigenous peoples of Assam and locally managed flood shelters and community early warning practices demonstrate strong, low-cost resilience, rooted in local knowledge.
IPS: How can these local practices be scaled or integrated into formal disaster management and planning?
Saiia: Systematically document and evaluate practices, fund pilots through micro-grants, adopt hybrid designs (traditional and technical standards), secure community ownership and embed proven models in national DRR and climate plans.
IPS: How can restoration of forests, wetlands and slopes reduce the risk of landslides and floods in regions like Darjeeling?
Saiia: Restoration increases infiltration, reduces peak discharge and sediment loads, and stabilizes soils, restoring natural buffers so that heavy rainfall is less likely to cause catastrophic landslides or extreme flooding.
IPS: Examples where ecosystem-based interventions have outperformed conventional infrastructure:
Saikia: Living root bridges and mature watershed reforestation can withstand heavy rainfall better and last longer than many concrete solutions, and reconnecting wetlands and floodplains reduces downstream surges more sustainably than dikes that simply transmit risk.
IPS: What are the biggest governance or institutional gaps limiting adaptation?
Saiia: Weak enforcement of risk zoning, isolated sector planning, limited local fiscal autonomy, poor micro-watershed data and inadequate local early warning systems.
IPS: How can state and local governments better collaborate with communities and civil society?
Saiia: Create support for local disaster planning units, fund communities for micro-projects, industrialize communities and convene multi-stakeholder basin platforms.
IPS: Is climate finance reaching the ground, or are structural barriers holding it back?
Saiia: Many finances remain centralized or tied to complex procedures; Slow disbursements, weak local fiduciary capacity and donor timelines misaligned with ecosystem recovery are preventing funds from reaching communities quickly.
IPS: What funding mechanisms can provide faster, more direct support for community-led resilience?
Saiia: Use micro-grants, locally managed climate funds and blended finance that combines seed grants with technical assistance and results-based payments to accelerate action on the ground.
IPS: Do you see opportunities for regional cooperation on mountain adaptation and resilience at IUCN WCC 2025?
Saikia: Yes, WCC is ideal to launch transboundary basin platforms, share hazard mapping tools and early warning protocols, and co-finance coordinated recovery goals in the Eastern Himalayas.
IPS: One key action India needs to take in the next five years to strengthen hill resilience:
Saiia: Establish and fund a National Mountain and Riverine Resilience Mission to identify hazards, enforce land use, fund nature-based community solutions, and build multi-level basin management and local capacity.
IPS: How can the IUCN Congress and global meetings turn conversations into concrete action for places like Darjeeling and the Eastern Himalayas?
Saiia: Accelerated pilot funding for community-led, nature-based projects, publish an implementation manual with proven local practices, and ensure multi-year donor-government-community agreements with measurable resilience goals to turn commitments into results.
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