RCE Srinagar has been actively involved in supporting the quest for sustainable livelihoods and sustainable development in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). The region being very susceptible to impacts of climate change, RCE Srinagar has been trying to create awareness about climate change and its impacts on lives of the mountain people. Children and communities were encouraged to observe internationally recognized environment days such as World Water Day, World Wetlands Day, International Mountain Day, International Biodiversity Day where they shared experiences and discussed climate change issues that touch their lives. These events, organized under the ‘Paryavaran Mitra’ (Friend of Environment) initiative of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India; ArcelorMittal and CEE, included a lot of learning through fun, games, serious discussions, extempore sessions, speeches, public rallies, painting and drawing competitions. Around 150 people attended the International Mountain Day program, 750 attended the World Wetlands Day event and almost 1000 people were in attendance at the World Water Day celebrations. The participants went home with greater awareness of environmental issues and resolved to do their bit for the environment. RCE Srinagar is also trying to promote environment friendly practices to make festivals safe through it’s ‘Safe Festival’ campaign, a part of the ‘Paryavaran Mitra’ programme. The festival that was recently observed was Holi, a festival of colours. Around 250 Children were entrusted with the responsibility to create awareness and combat environment unfriendly practices. They took their responsibilities seriously and made a difference to the way their families and friends celebrated the festival. The use of herbal colours over chemical and toxic colors was promoted widely, with successful results. Water conservation, noise pollution, local and organic food were other themes that were addressed. RCE Srinagar is also involved in imparting education related to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through preparedness in the Indian Himalaya Region that falls in seismically active zones IV and V. Natural disasters such as earthquakes take a heavy toll on life and property in the IHR. As witnessed in the recent past, it is understood that natural hazards will occur far more frequently in the years to come. Unfortunately, they will also be of much higher magnitudes. Therefore, the situation warrants immediate attention, and RCE Srinagar has engaged itself in this activity aiming at having disaster free IHR, with much hope and enthusiasm. The DRR campaign is being run in schools, colleges as well as villages. Post the Kashmir earthquake on 8 October, 2005, CEE Himalaya had addressed over 2500 schools and 50 villages in the field of DRR, and aims to mainstream DRR education through preparedness in the policies and programmes of local governments, villages and schools. Post the 2011 earthquake in Sikkim, RCE Srinagar focused on various schools across the state to create awareness and equip around 1100 children and their teachers to be adequately prepared for future disaster situations. Sikkim is a predominantly Buddhist state and the monasteries and monks have considerable control and influence on society. The existing monasteries were built a long time ago and are not earthquake resistant. As a result, most of the buildings suffered heavy structural damages during the recent earthquake. Responding to this felt-need in Sikkim, RCE Srinagar, in collaboration with WWF-India and Rumtek Monastery, has fixed a workshop, early next month, to address the monks of one of the biggest and most famed monasteries of the state, Rumtek Monastery, and 25 other monasteries. The objective of this workshop is to train the monks to help people during disasters as well as to effectively contribute to rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts. Each monastery will be helped in preparing its ‘Disaster Management Plan’ that will identify safe areas, mark evacuation routes and list important contact numbers. The capacity building component of the workshop will also encourage and help the monasteries to form their own disaster response teams. RCE Srinagar will try to build their capacity by imparting required trainings and conducting mock drills. The programmes of RCE Srinagar have been well received by people across the IHR. They have also made requests to host more such events. RCE Srinagar was successful in networking and liaising with a number of local NGOs, environmental networks and government departments in order to carry out these varied activities and mainstream most of them.