The ENGAGE4Sundarbans team will be participating in the 28th European Conference on South Asian Studies (ECSAS), taking place in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1–4 October 2025. During the conference, the team is organising a panel titled “Living with and Recovering from Coastal and Riverine Disasters: A Critical Approach of Riskscape”.

Under this panel, Samiya Selim, Director and Professor, Center for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, and Md Nurul Islam, Lead Researcher, Research and Evaluations at SAJIDA Foundation, will deliver a presentation on “Governing the commons: an ethnographic exploration of local adaptation response to complex global problems.”

Emilie Cremin, Insititute of Geography and sustainability – IGD, University of Lausanne, Switzerland; Souradip Pathak – IIT Kharagpur, India; and Tapas Mondal – SJSM, NGO, Kolkata, India; will be delivering a presentation on “Restoring Rights and Resilience: Ādivāsī Communities, Traditional Knowledge, and Environmental Conservation in the Indian Sundarbans”, during the panel. 

Emilie Cremin will convene this panel. 

The discussion will focus on the challenges faced by riverine, deltaic, and coastal regions of South Asia, which are regularly exposed to cyclones, floods, and storm surges. These recurring hazards not only damage agriculture and infrastructure but also displace communities. The panel will explore how different stakeholders respond to these risks—through public management, community initiatives, agro-ecological practices, and nature-based solutions—while critically examining their effectiveness. By engaging with questions of power, the hydrosocial cycle, and local socio-ecological contexts, the session seeks to foster knowledge exchange on sustainable reconstruction and adaptation in complex, multi-risk environments. 

Learn more about the conference: Click Here 

We look forward to sharing our work and engaging in meaningful discussions at ECSAS 2025.