The 31st IGC, Tunis programme includes plenary sessions, and special sessions on International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE), and Culture and Civilisation of Human Development (CCHD), Technical sessions, Pre and Post Congress Excursions and Workshops. Indian delegation in the congress led by R.B.Singh (Delhi University) included 17 geographers from Delhi, Rohtak, Patna, Bangalore, Shilong, Aligarh, Mysore, Bodh Gaya and Siliguri etc. Dr. R.B.Singh has been nominated as Vice-Chair of the IGU Commission on Biogeography and Biodiversity. A Country Report-Progress in Indian Geography 2004-08, containing 20 Chapters on Indian Researches done in different fields of Geography, was distributed to the IGU General Assembly and National Delegates. Recommendation includes strengthening teaching and research for promoting ecosystem integrity, conservation and sustainable use of resources and social-ecological resilience through focusing food, climate, water, biodiversity and health. They discussed the concerned area of vulnerability like resource-use conflict, policy-implication conflict and risk-awareness analysis to develop strategies for communication and geoscientific knowledge transfer to policy makers. There is a need to use a diversity of channels in a targeted manner to ensure that appropriate geographical technology such as GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing is used for solving global geographical problems. Attempt should be made to bridge the gap between academic community and policy development. Inviting officials and community leaders to geographical activities, it is possible to resolve various socio-economic and ecological conflicts at local, regional and national levels. |
