(From previous issue)
The Transition: A Signal Still flickering.
Amidst these challenges, Nagaland is struggling to send a clear “signal” back through the adoption of green technology. While the global trend leans toward Electric Vehicles (EVs) to reduce carbon footprints and noise pollution, our local transition remains frustratingly slow. A stark example of this “noise” is the recent procurement of 43 new buses by the Nagaland State Transport (NST) department—all of which remain dependent on diesel engines rather than electric power. Despite talk of “green initiatives,” our largest public investments are still fueling the very crisis we seek to escape.
The Missing Link in Dimapur
Nowhere, is this policy gap more apparent than in Dimapur. As the state’s commercial hub and a primary victim of urban heat and congestion, Dimapur should be the flagship for zero-emission public transport. Yet, Dimapur remains without a functional city bus service. The absence of a public transport system—let alone an electric one—forces a total reliance on private, high-emission vehicles, worsening the city’s air quality, traffic congestion and heat stress. A 100% EV public transport mandate for both government and private operators is not just a suggestion for Dimapur; it is a necessity for urban survival. The theme #NowForClimate is not a suggestion—it is a deadline. We must ask our leaders: When the next budget is drafted, will we continue to invest in the “exhaust” of the past, or will we have the political courage to provide the people of Dimapur with the electric, public lifelines they deserve as well as a gradual transition in other districts?
A Battle for Survival: The “Greening Dimapur” Appeal
While the hills of Nagaland face a landscape in motion, Dimapur is fighting an entirely different beast: an escalating “heat disaster.” Driven by rapid concrete urbanization, vehicle emissions, and the devastating loss of our green canopy, our city’s ambient temperatures are skyrocketing to unbearable, hazardous limits. The formal push to declare urban heat stress as a state specific disaster in Dimapur reached a critical policy stage following the submission of working white paper titled “From Heat to Action: Rethinking Urban Resilience in Dimapur”. Released in early 2026 by Earth Alliance Nagaland (EAN), and the National Youth Climate Consortium (NYCC) in collaboration with DMC, the paper outlines the severe environmental and public health risk triggered by rapid concrete expansion and shrinking green cover. The primary objective of notifying heat stress as an official “disaster” is to move from a siloed, fragmented approach to institutional action for urban resilience, while also legally unlocking state and national funding mechanisms to implement climate mitigation protocols such as Heat Action Plans. One such key intervention EAN is steering is the Greening Dimapur, aimed at increasing green cover across the city. This is not a passive government project—it is a collective rescue mission for our city. We are calling on every individuals, colony chairman, youth organization, school, and business owners across Dimapur to step up and claim ownership of this movement through:-
• Plant with Purpose: Cultivate indigenous, shade-giving, and hardy varieties that can withstand urban heat and actively cool our streets.
• Adopt Your Sector: Every colony committee and youth club must identify barren roadside patches, concrete traffic islands, and vacant public plots to transform them into micro-urban forests.
• Commit to Aftercare: Planting a sapling is only 10% of the job; the remaining 90% is survival. Guard your plants and water them during brutal dry months.
• Green Your Footprint: Replace concrete paver blocks with natural soil or grass lawns to allow the earth to breathe. Utilize rooftop gardens to lower household temperatures naturally.
Dimapur is our home, and right now, it is burning. We cannot sit in air-conditioned rooms and wait for the climate to fix itself. The “Greening Dimapur” initiative is our collective shield against an unlivable future. Join us today. Plant a tree, protect a sapling, and reclaim our city’s climate before the concrete completely takes over
While Dimapur remains the primary epicenter of severe urban heat risk in the state, Chümoukedima and Niuland are also emerging as major area facing severe heat stress. For the last two consecutive years {2025 and 2026), the Government has issued state wide advisories for implementing urgent preventive measures for occupational safety, health and welfare during extreme heat waves. Such directives were entirely unprecedented in Nagaland, serving as a stark warning that climate change is an active reality today.
A Citizen Action Blueprint for Nagaland
To survive an era of accelerating climate volatility, Nagaland must rapidly transition from passive climate awareness to active, organized defense. We must remain deeply sensitive to our changing times and the urgent need for future survival strategies that safeguard our fragile ecosystem. Designed to unite both urban and rural communities, this strategic framework could drive grassroots civic adoption while simultaneously urging government policy to pivot toward sustainable, climate-resilient development. To secure our future, communities and policymakers could act on the following some strategic pillars:
- Adopt Rainwater Harvesting: Secure water during lean months by installing household-level rooftop catchment systems to combat unseasonal droughts. Government may consider making this mandatory, especially for new constructions.
- Support Community Conservation: Empower village councils to protect private forest lands, expand Community Conserved Areas (CCAs), and extend Jhum fallow periods.
- Practice “Hill-Friendly” Waste Management: Keep plastics out of natural mountain nullahs (drains) and steep gorges to prevent catastrophic urban flash floods.
- Preserve Indigenous Seeds: Plant local, drought-resistant, and pest-resilient crop varieties that are naturally adapted to severe climate shifts.
- Green Transit: Support and advocate for the deployment of reliable, electric public transport and e-rickshaw network in a phase manner.
World Environment Day 2026 asks us to recognize that while change is inevitable, the speed and direction of that change remain in our hands. Every action—from a local policy shift to a personal lifestyle change—is a signal sent back to the planet that it is finally being heard. Climate change is a present crisis demanding immediate, collective respond. Will Nagaland choose to listen to the fury of a changing climate and pioneer a positive ecological push or wait till our rivers and lands are permanently lost?
(Concluded)
L. H Thangi Mannen
Director and Founder
Earth Alliance Nagaland