About Us

IMI works in 12 Indian mountain states, including the hill districts of Assam and the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. These states have unique ecosystems, peculiar challenges and opportunities, and have extraordinary culture, biodiversity, and knowledge systems. Located at the frontier of India, this region is, for the most part, secluded, underdeveloped, and at the fringes of the country’s attention. In 1983, the Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA), Nainital (Uttarakhand), organised a seminar leading to proceedings titled Environmental Regeneration in Himalaya: Concepts and Strategies. Nearly two decades later, the importance of a common platform for this region was recognised by a Task Force of the Planning Commission of the Government of India in 2010. The Report of this Task Force tentatively titled this as the Himalayan Development Forum. Yet despite some official efforts, attempts to constitute such a forum did not bear fruit. Once again, it was CHEA who took the initiative to organise the first-ever Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) at Nainital in 2011, in line with the legacy of the Sustainable Mountain Development Agenda (Chapter 13 of Agenda 21) of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Earth Summit, 1992). This was an avenue to seek consensus among the Indian mountain states regarding the creation of a platform where diverse stakeholders working on issues pertinent to mountains could come together to engage in an informed debate on identified themes, with the objective of informing and influencing policy formulation in respect of the mountain region. Through SMDS-I, the idea of IMI became a movement.

The next SMDS was held in Gangtok in 2012, through the efforts of the Ecotourism and Conservation Society of Sikkim (ECOSS). The Gangtok Summit (SMDS-II) added the participation of private sector players like PricewaterhouseCoopers India and Tata Motors. Organisations such as GLOBE India also became active partners in the process, and the Sikkim chapter of GLOBE India was successfully launched as a component of the Summit. The success of these Summits facilitated the organisation of the Kohima Summit (SMDS-III), by the Sustainable Development Forum, Nagaland (SDFN). The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Department for International Development (DFID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ-India), Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (Atree), Swiss Development Corporation-Indian Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the Tata Trusts, amongst others continued the generous support they had given since the first Summit.

All three Summits have seen over 250 participants from across the IHR and led to the adoption of declarations such as the Gangtok Declaration, which emphasised the importance of the sustainable mountain development agenda for the future. Other events took shape and grew alongside the SMDS. These include the Himalayan Photography Competition, the Legislator’s Meet, the Policy Maker’s Dialogue, the Youth Summit, and the National Workshop on Mountain Cities. In order to ensure that the initial momentum and enthusiasm generated during the SMDS continues, it was resolved that a Meet of the Mountain States (MoMS) would be convened between two SMDSs. MoMS is an avenue for sharing the outcomes of the preceding SMDS with a wider audience, being held in New Delhi. It is also a forum for advocacy, particularly directed towards sensitising national policymakers and mountain diaspora about mountain issues.

VISION:

Making the people of India proud of our mountains.

MISSION:

We are a collective initiative for recognizing the value of mountain regions and enabling people to realize its potential by integrating the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholders.

VALUES:

• Integrative
• Inclusive
• Collaborative
• Voluntary
• Passionate
• Democratic
• Open