Pema Gyamtsho, the director general of the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, is one of the world’s ...
Pema Gyamtsho, the director general of the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, is one of the world’s leading experts on protection of the fragile ecology of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a United Nations-supported inter-governmental organisation, has eight regional member countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. A prominent Bhutanese politician, he was his country’s first minister of agriculture and forest. He has a PhD from the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
I interacted with him at a virtual international conference on “Protection of the Himalayan Ecology”, organised by China’s ministry of foreign affairs on February 2. Just five days later, Uttarakhand witnessed a natural disaster in the form of a massive Himalayan glacier burst.
I interviewed him on this tragedy, the grave threats that global warming and the climate crisis have posed to the region, and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development’s vision and mission.
Excerpts from the interview:
The calamity caused by the glacial burst in Uttarakhand on February 7 has once again turned the spotlight on the vulnerability of the Himalayan region. Has the international centre reached out to its network partners in India? And can you share your initial...
