Topic 

Sustaining the Water Tower of Asia :  Rivers, Communities, Livelihood and Challenges

Context

In this conversation, Prof. Chandan Mahanta and his research group talk about the rivers flowing down from the Water Tower of Asia and the present state of affairs influenced by both natural and man made interventions. Implications on the ecosystems nurtured by these rivers, and their effects on communities, cultures, and  civilization downstream will be  highlighted.

Speaker

Prof. Chandan Mahanta, HoD, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, India

Dr. Chandan Mahanta is currently a Professor and Head in the Civil Engineering Department, and a Professor & former Head of the Centre for the Environment at IIT Guwahati.  He is member of Board of Governors of NIT Sikkim, NIT Nagaland and Khelhoshe Polytechnic, Nagaland. He was an ASCE-EWRI visiting fellow at the Utah Water Research Laboratory of the Utah State University, USA and was EurIndia visiting fellow to the University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe, Germany. He was in the Monash Sustainability Institute of Monash University under the Australian Leadership Award Fellowship Programme and was part of the Hydro Diplomacy training program jointly conducted by MIT, Harvard University and Tufts University.  Prof Mahanta has served for various national and international committees including in working groups in the Planning Commission of India. Prof Mahanta has carried out projects focusing upon Natural Resource Management and particularly environmental management funded by national and international agencies including MHRD, MoUD, MoEF, DST, SIDA, EURINDIA, UNICEF, WWF and IUCN. 

Moderator

Mr. Sabyasachi Dutta, Founder Director, Asian Confluence, Meghalaya, India