SDG 13.4Resilience to climate hazards
In a region exposed to floods, landslides, forest fires and glacial lake bursts, UPES prepares its own community and helps others become more resilient.
- Himalayan communities. HILL works on disaster preparedness, including wireless sensor networks for early warning of flash floods and landslides, and on livelihoods such as Bhimal fibre crafts, Bhanjira cultivation, eco-tourism and turning temple flower waste into incense, dyes and compost.
- Community Resilience Resource Centres. UPES is an implementing and knowledge partner in this DST–UNDP programme, using science and technology to help communities recover from shocks. UPES cites its projects Sakhi, Eklavya, Ayushman and Narayani as part of this work.
- Policy on disaster risk. On 10 December 2025 the School of Law, with the SDC Foundation and the Society for Constitutional Law and Human Rights, released "Uttarakhand on Edge: UDAAI's Monsoon Report 2025", documenting 13 major disasters of the 2025 monsoon and recommending stronger early warning, wider glacial monitoring and a unified Himalayan resilience policy.
- Working with NGOs on adaptation. Himalaya Calling 2025 led to MoUs with seven national and international NGOs on climate resilience.
- At the United Nations. In May 2023 Prof Neelu Jyothi Ahuja presented UPES's work on these centres at the UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum.
Sources and further reading
- UDAAI Monsoon Report 2025 (Garhwal Post)
- Himalayan Institute for Learning and Leadership (HILL)
- UPES at the UN STI Forum 2023 (India Education Diary)
- DST side event on Community Resilience Resource Centres
- UPES faculty highlight role of CRRCs (Garhwal Post)
- Himalayan Fellowship 2025 call for applications (PDF)