Seminar
on
Climate Change and Sustainability in a Transformative World
on
22 November 2015
at
Empowering Self to Serve
Vivekananda Institute of Social Work and Social Sciences (VISWASS)
(Permanently recognized by Govt. of Odisha & Affiliated to Utkal University)
474, Pitapalli Square, NH-5, Khordha, Bhubaneswar – 752055
www.viswass.org
Climate Change and Sustainability in a Transformative World
Introduction: For over last few decades, the world has been reel under extreme weather
condition i.e. from heat waves to cyclones, drought to floods, rains are erratic; winters have
become warmer; and the summers longer etc. Many countries/states have been declared disasteraffected. There is no direct answer for why is this happening and we have tagged it to the effect
of global warming and climate change.
History revealed that industrial growth era in western world during previous century worked
myopic in terms of maintaining ecological harmony. It was an accepted fact that initially the
developed nations and later the developing nations exploited the non-renewal resources and
could not predict the fast approaching consequences. Resource-centric with myopic vision of
development-led exploitations of natural resources and experimentations of scientific tools for
industrial growth and/or national security reasons have drastically reduced the diversity of
biosphere. Of late, the contemporary globalism reacts sharply to issues of climatic change,
environmental degradation, and sustainability issues. The shock for future earth has been
manifested through catastrophes like Tsunami, Lehar, Phailin, tornados, typhoons, earth quack,
forest fire, land sliding avalanches, ice melting, and many manmade disasters like green-house
effects, acid rain, loss of bio-diversities, emergence of new unknown dreaded killer diseases, and
rise of sea level leading to submerging a few habitation areas of mankind.
Climate projections for India suggest that impacts are likely to be varied and heterogeneous, with
some regions experiencing more intense rainfall and flood risks, while others will encounter low
rainfall and prolonged droughts. India's immense geographic diversity adds to the complexity of
developing and implementing an adaptation strategy. The impacts will vary across States,
sectors, locations and populations and hence there can be no one-size-fits-all approach to
developing a climate risk management strategy.
The local transformative knowledge systems are product of sharing and caring approach to the
micro-ecology for sustainability and these are orthogenetic adoptive in nature caused due to
complex relationship between needs and the freedom of choice among the members in the
systems. While the regional or global knowledge systems are largely imitative and non-native
and are treated as structurally and functionally transformative as they are targeting for
development.
The UN Declaration 2006 emphasizes the right of indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen
their own institutions, cultures and traditions and to pursue their development in accordance with
their aspirations and needs. Indian Parliament has passed the Forest Rights Act in 2006,
implemented in India since 2008, that provides a legislative basis to redress the historical
injustice forest dwellers in the country. The indigenous populations were the full caretaker and
were conserver of jal (water), jamin (land) and jungle (forest) is now consumer of these
resources like their urban counterparts. Till the community members were the only managers of
forest, our forest resources were quite safe. They remained bio-diverse rich and lent balance to
the ecology. As forest resources were needed to be used and abused for so called ‘development’
of ‘civilised’ people, gradually those forest managing communities were forced alienated from
the forest land, forest resource or forest management. Though the communities themselves, at
times, resented, their resentment was often mute and thus remained unheard or ignored.
Most of the mineral resources of Odisha are located in areas inhabited by the indigenous tribal
communities and major rivers flow down from these hilly parts of the state. Hence, all the heavy
industries, power generation or irrigation projects and large-scale mining have been launched in
these areas. Though mining, industrial and other development interventions have provided nontraditional earning opportunities to the tribal communities, their traditional habitat, livelihood
sources & skills, land and other immovable assets have been lost without always bringing in
adequate prosperity and peace via jobs in mines and factories. The process of desertification in
many parts of the state has already been realized. With the loss of carrying capacity of the
micro-ecology, the natives tried to develop coping mechanisms from within the acquired
knowledge and skill from cultural institutions to overcome paucity and maintain sustainability.
This generated lot of apprehensions and the sustainability questions. To address such and many
other issues, VISWASS Group of Institutes organize a seminar on “Climate Change and
Sustainability in a Transformative World” on 22nd November 2014 in Bhubaneswar.
Objectives of the Seminar: The major objectives of the study are:

To address issues such as the depletion of natural resources and its effect on food
security, increasing heat-waves & decreasing working capacity, decreasing agroecological conditions;

To discuss the degree of uncertainty and potential future costs of transformation, so that
the state can better prioritize inclusive development plans;

To identify the role and responsibilities of different stakeholders - individuals, civil
society, private sector, government, and corporate houses in implementing different
options at different levels through CSR and the interrelationships between them;

To ascertain the extent to which the traditional societies cope with change by invoking
cultural mechanisms for making balances between development and sustainability.
Call for Abstract
The Organizing Committee invites you to submit abstracts for consideration for the Seminar. All abstracts
will be reviewed by the committee who will grade them for inclusion into either the oral presentations or
poster sessions at the Seminar.
Key dates:
First Call for Abstracts
Call for Abstracts closes
Notification of Abstract acceptance
Registration
: 01 October 2014
: 30 October 2014
: 01 November 2014
: 02 November 2014
Registration Fee:
Faculty member/institutional representation : Rs.1,500/Research Scholar/student participation
: Rs.1,000/All registered participants will get a certificate, registration kit, and food during the seminar.
Delegates have to arrange their own travel and stay arrangement.
Organizing Team
Patron
Er. Pragyan Ranjan Gharai
Organizing Committee
Mr. I.B. Rao
Dr. Dilip Mishra
Mr. Deepak Ojha
Mr. Sidheswar Malla
Ms. Rajashree Mishra
Dr. A. Bahinipati
Mr. Sanjay Parida
Mr. Anthony Mathew
Mr. Ajay Patnaik
Coordinator
Prof. Motilal Dash, Ph.D. (IIT Kanpur)
Director, Research & Development
VISWASS Group of Institutes
474, Pitapalli Square, NH-5, Khordha
Bhubaneswar, Odisha, INDIA – 752055
Email: motilal.dash@gmail.com, motilal.dash@viswass.org
Mobile: 008763004100
Working Committees
Web design and updates
Mr. Dillip Thakur
Mr. Sabyasachi Bagudai
Abstract submission
Dr. Dillip Mishra
Ms. Rajashree Mishra
Ms. Rajashree Mohanty
Registration
Mr. Deepak Ojha
Mr. Sidheswar Malla
Reception and accommodation
Mr. Ajay Patnaik
Mr. I.B. Rao
Mr. Sujit Mohanty
Dr. A.K. Bahinipati
Mr. Sanjaya Parida
Transportation
Mr. Deepak Ojha
Mr. Bijaya Mangaraj
Sponsorship
Mr. Ajay Patnaik
Mr. I.B. Rao
Mr. Deepak Ojha
Mr. Sanjay Parida
Mr. Anthony Mathew
Publication and Media Relations
Dr. Dilip Mishra
Mr. Punyasloka Aich
Registration Kit preparation
Mr. Bijaya Mangaraj
Mr. Sambit Sundaray