Guwahati: The Assam government is anticipating the outcomes of village and community-level research projects conducted by the inaugural batch of postgraduate students selected for the Chief Minister’s Climate Resilient Village Fellowship program.
Launched in the academic year 2022-23, this fellowship initiative aims to provide students with the opportunity to collaborate with local communities on climate change impact and adaptation at the grassroots level. Over a period of three months, these students will actively engage with 47 villages across the state, an official release stated.
The enthusiasm for this program was palpable during the fellows’ orientation workshop, held at the community resource centre in Chandrasing Rongpi Village of Kohora, Karbi Anglong.
Secretary of the Science, Technology, and Climate Change Department of the Assam Government, Laya Madduri, expressed her belief in the potential of this fellowship. Madduri stated, “The three-month fellowship has provided the students with a wonderful opportunity to work with the village community on climate change impact and adaptation at the grassroots. The climate change phenomenon now determines policy decisions of the governments across the globe. So, it is always better to have an adaptation mechanism in place to face its severe impacts when it strikes us.”
Encouraging them to deliver outstanding results in their fellowship projects, Madduri emphasised their potential as “agents of change” in climate change adaptation at the grassroots level. She urged the students to research climate change related coping mechanisms of local residents and stressed that their accurate findings would enable the government to formulate a comprehensive state-level climate change adaptation plan in due course.
The orientation workshop, held from July 16 to 18, was skillfully coordinated by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) in collaboration with Aaranyak, an organisation specialising in biodiversity conservation and participatory natural resource management in the Kohora River Basin area.
Dr. Chandra Baruah, Head of the Environment Division at ASTEC, provided further context about the Fellowship for the 2022-23 academic year, sharing that 47 fellows were carefully chosen for the inaugural batch. These students will receive continuous guidance and assessment from assigned mentors and members of the Fellowship Core Committee.
The fellowship programme complements other initiatives such as the Assam State Action Plan on Climate Change (ASAPCC) and the Assam Green Mission.
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With high expectations, the government anticipates that the insights and recommendations derived from the fellowship projects will pave the way for more effective policies and programs, allowing Assam to overcome the multifaceted challenges presented by climate change.
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