IMPHAL, Nov 23 � The major challenges faced by the journalists� community in writing news stories relating to the issues of climate change in the Indian Himalayas was the main highlight of the three-day media workshop in Sikkim which concluded on November 19.
The media workshop on adaptation to climate change in the Indian Himalayas was organised by Centre for Environment Education & Third Pole as part of the Indian Himalayas Climate Adaptation programme and national mission for sustaining the Himalayas eco-system, to improve creative thinking and effective communication on adaptation to climate change in a local context.
Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change were the knowledge partners of the workshop.
Media persons from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Odisha, West Bengal and New Delhi participating in the workshop felt that unavailability of data, inaccessibility to quality data, lack of climate change literature, poor orientation of media persons, lack of knowledge, etc., were the main challenges in writing comprehensive news reports on climate change issues in Himalayan States including NE States.
Sikkim Commissioner Sandeep Tambe, ADC and district programme coordinator Benu Gurung, Thirdpole�s Joydeep Gupta, Guwahati based NGO Aaranyak�s general secretary Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, ICIMOD�s Networking officer Udhayan Mishra and others provided insight into how to communicate climate science to a lay audience besides briefing the journalists on their initiative, its research thrust, and key issues related to climate change.
A local facilitator-cum-trainer, Pem Norbu Sherpa, offered a local perspective on climate change issues specific to Sikkim and outlined the challenges that the cultivators face.
During the workshop, participating journalists visited Parbing village in Namchi district in Sikkim and interacted with the villagers, block level officers and scientists of KVK Namthang for field reporting.
