Two days Regional Consultation Workshop on the Development of Catchment Resilience Index for Resilient Basin Development is organized by IWMI and ICAR-CRIDA at ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture Hyderabad during 26 – 27 November 2024. The inaugural session was held on 26-11-2024 forenoon.

The Chief Guest of the workshop was Dr. Mukesh Kumar Sinha, Chairman, Godavari River Management Board. Dr. S.K. Bal, Director in-charge, ICAR-CRIDA welcomed the dignitaries and participants and described an over-view of ICAR-CRIDA.

Dr Alok Sikka, IWMI Representative for India and Bangladesh explained the purpose of the workshop and the need for development of the integrated Catchment Resilience Index (CRI) considering flood, drought and water scarcity along with the risk and resilience parameters.

Dr Giriraj Amarnath, Principal Researcher & INTEGRATE Project Lead, IWMI emphasised on the background and his expectations from this workshop. He gave a detailed description on the ICAR INTEGRATE Project and Catchment Risk and Resilience Index (CRI) to be formulated and conceptualized from this workshop based on the response from participants particularly on the indicators to be included.

Dr. Mukesh Kumar Sinha, Chairman, Godavari River Management Board, in his key note address, extended his co-operation in developing the CRI index and stressed that it will be very useful for the Godavari basin management.

The development of Catchment Resilience Index (CRI) is part of the wider initiative supported by ICAR and its center CRIDA and IIWM to promote Increasing agricultural resilience through Agricultural Disaster Risk Management Strategy in India [INTEGRATE] and implemented by International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

The project aims to develop an innovative co-design and co-implement process with diverse stakeholders on the importance of CRI for catchment planning and rehabilitation to guide integrated climate risk management.

A total of 42 participants from different Institutions including IIWM, ICAR-CRIDA, ICAR-IIWM, NRSC, ICRISAT, NIH, Irrigation Department of Telangana, NABARD, WALAMTARI, ANGRAU and other state departments actively participated. The inaugural session ended with vote of thanks by Dr.K.V. Rao, Head (Division of Resource Management).