Sustainable Development Goals in Northeast India: Challenges and Achievements

This book covers themes related to the geosphere, biosphere, sociosphere and ecosphere dealing with changing geographical, environmental and socio-economic realities to plan a sustainable future for the northeast region (NER) of India. The NER consists of eight states―Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim―and they carry political, economic and social importance. The book integrates the past, present and future of geospheric attributes incorporating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to meet the demands for improving human wellbeing under diverse and challenging socio-economic, political and environmental conditions. The key SDGs, as in food and agriculture, health, education, water, energy and other overarching goals of the region, have yet to incorporate providing sustainable jobs and promoting equality and inclusive development, although there have been a few studies in that regard.

The challenges to achieve SDGs in the NER are formidable compared to the rest of India. The NER has put a great deal of effort into achieving the SDGs, mainly in poverty (SDG-1), good health (SDG-3), education (SDG-4), gender (SDG-5), decent work (SDG-8) and reduced inequalities (SDG-10), similar to the rest of the country. However, the standard development indicators such as road length, access to health care, power consumption and other measures are far below the national average. A multi-pronged strategy has played a pivotal role in the region, but development strategy to attain the SDGs 2030 must be more inclusive in empowering people with maximising self-governance, considering the resources, needs and aspirations of the people.

This book evaluates the performance of the SDGs and fills in the gaps. It includes case studies focusing on different SDGs using advanced cartographic, statistical and GIS techniques and methods. It also provides unique findings that serve as valuable resources for plannersand policy-makers so that a sustainable future in Northeast India can be achieved.

Subhash Anand is currently a Professor at the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. He has to his credit 25 years of teaching and research experience and published 07 books (including Urban Health Risk and Resilience in Asian Cities, Water Science and Sustainability, and Global Geographical Heritage, Geoparks and Geotourism by Springer Nature) and more than 75 research papers, articles and chapters in high reputed journals and books. He has specialization in Urban Environmental Issues, Sustainable Cities, Solid Waste Management & Planning, Geotourism. Prof. Anand is  Associate Editor-in- Chief of the International Journal of Geoheritage and Parks (Elsevier) and also Vice-Chair of Commission on Geoheritage and Parks, International Geographical Union (IGU). He is also on the editorial boards of many reputed journals. He has supervised several Ph.D, M.Phil & Master theses and dissertations. Prof. Anand possesses administrative experience having worked in various capacities in different organizations. He has done successful UGEC & SARCS advanced training workshop on Urban Spatial Planning in response to Climate Change in Asia, in Taipei, and Commonwealth Geographical Bureau (CGB) workshop on Human Consequences of Climate Change at University of Colombo. He has widely travelled and participated in several international conferences, seminars & workshops and delivered lectures in various countries. He is recipient of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Award by International Eminent Educationist Forum of India.

Madhushree Das is the head of the Department of Geography, Gauhati University, and is a social and cultural geographer, working in the field of gender and tribal geography. She has more than 25 years of teaching and research experience and has published 3 books and more than 45 research papers. She currently supervises 8 Ph.D. scholars. Under her supervision, 7 students have received Ph.D. degrees and 6 have been awarded M.Phil. degrees. She participated in the Commonwealth Geographical Bureau Workshop on Human Consequences on Climate Change at the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 2005 and received the International Geographical Award three times to present her research in Durban (South Africa), Cologne (Germany), Szeged (Hungary) and Kyoto (Japan). She also presented her research in Boston, USA, in 2017. She has initiated an academic collaboration with the Royal Geographical Society, London, and has visited the University of Sydney, New South Wales, and Canberra in Australia as part of the Gauhati University team in connection with academic links and the opening of Gauhati University Alumni chapter in Australia. She was the general secretary of the North East India Geographical Society from 2016 to 2018.

Rituparna Bhattacharyya holds a Ph.D. from the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle, UK. She is a Senior Fellow, Advance HE (formerly Higher Education Academy), UK, and an Adjunct Professor, Indian Insitute of Technology, Guwahati. She also works as a research consultant and editor-in-chief (Joint) of the journal Space and Culture, India. She does volunteer work at the Prag Foundation for Capacity Building, a public charitable trust in India, and the Alliance for Community Capacity Building for North East India, a UK-registered charity. She has more than 65 publications to her credit in international outlets.

R.B. Singh was the secretary general and treasurer of the International Geographical Union and a former head of the Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India (2013–2016 and 2019–2020). He has supervised 40 Ph.D. and 81 M.Phil. research scholars and numerous M.A. students. He has been the chair of the University Grants Commission (UGC) National Committee’s Learning Outcome Based Curriculum Framework since July 2018. He was invited by the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)–Global Network of Science Academies to join a working group for statements on science and technology for disaster risk reduction. Prof. Singh was unanimously elected president of the Earth System Science Section of the Indian Science Congress Association for 2019–2020. The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Government of India, invited him to be a member of the committee for preparing Vision India 2035. He has authored 16 books and edited 40 books, with more than 250 research papers published in national and international journals. He is the series editor of Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences (Springer) and Sustainable Development Goals (Springer). He was awarded the prestigious Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowship at Hiroshima in 2013 and several travel fellowships and support from various organisations.