Mountains and people: A peoples' perspective from the Indian Himalayas

Mountain inhabitants all over the world, often guileless and trusting people, are gradually waking up to their vulnerabilities and there is growing concern among them over the loss of their immediate habitat and the usurption of their resources and livelihood patterns by vested interests. These concerns have found articulation in Chapter 13 of the Agenda 21 document under the heading: Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development. As mountain development comes up for review later this year, there has been an attempt to aggregate global NGO concerns vis-a-vis mountain development and the many challenges to that process. The consultation of NGOs from all around the world at Lima, Peru in the last week of February '95 is an attempt to articulate these concerns.
The Sri Bhuvaneshwari Mahila Ashram (SBMA) has endeavoured to dovetail the concerns of grass roots NGOs in the Himalayas and project them onto a global platform.