Join us for the screening of Himalayan Meltdown and discussion with Ajay Chhibber, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific at the UNDP, and Bittu Sahgal, Founding Editor of Sanctuary Asia.

Himalayan Meltdown is a documentary film co-produced by the UN Development Programme, Discovery Asia, and Arrowhead Films. The movie examines the human development impact of the glacial ice melt on communities in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal.  It shows the plight of the affected countries and the ways they are adapting, adjusting and preparing for tomorrow’s inevitable changes in the Himalayan glaciers. It features innovative fog-catching in Nepal, man-made glaciers in India, views of life in the changing plateaus of China, and pioneering UNDP climate change adaptation projects in Bhutan and Bangladesh.  Technological advances from leading glaciologists, experts at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and UNDP offer insights into what is in progress and what still needs to be done for countries to address the Himalayan ice melt.

Ajay Chhibber serves as Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He has had a very diverse career at the World Bank for over 25 years covering both research and policy issues, and has worked across Asia. He was previously Country Director for Vietnam, where he managed over $1billion in lending. He has also been Director of the Independent Evaluation Group and a manager in the Eastern European and Asian Departments of the World Bank. He was Staff Director on the World Development Report in 1997 and has served as a Senior Economist at the World Bank. He has published widely on development and policy issues. Before joining the World Bank, he was a consultant researcher for FAO and the International Food Policy Research Institute. Prior to that he worked at the Indian Planning Commission and was also a lecturer in economics at the University of Delhi. He holds a PhD from Stanford University and an MA from the Delhi School of Economics.

Bittu Sahgal is the Editor of Sanctuary Asia magazine. He started Sanctuary Asia and Cub Magazines in the early '80s.  To communicate the rationale for conservation to as wide an audience as possible, he has used the medium of film, having produced over 30 conservation-oriented documentaries that were aired over India's national television network. Sahgal's columns on environmental and development issues appear in a number of English and regional language publications in India. A journalist-writer, he has been closely involved with several national campaigns and is an active member on a range of government and non-government organization boards and committees.  He is a trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Trust, India and his key involvements focus around campaigns to save the tiger and to highlight the connection between human rights, biodiversity conservation, deforestation, ecosystem values and climate change.

This programme is part of our Energy & Environment Series, which focuses on pressing topics of environmental concern to inform current debates and incite dialogue among stakeholders at multiple levels.

This programme is part of the exhibition ZNE! Examples to follow!, which aims at raising awareness for the fact that a constructive sustainability cannot make do without the arts and sciences. It needs to learn from them how to think in transitions, interim solutions, models and projects.

This programme is presented in partnership with The Goethe Institut, Sanctuary Asia, The Centre for Environmental Research and Education, The Bombay Natural History Society and The Columbia Water Center.