Dr. Vimal Khawas is Professor in the Special Centre for the Study of North East India at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Previously, he was Associate Professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University. He headed the department in 2018-20. He holds MPlan (Urban and Regional Planning) from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, and PhD (Political Geography) from the Political Geography Division, Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament (CIPOD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His PhD focuses on the Environmental Security issues and challenges of the Himalaya.
He specializes and works around issues of regional development & planning, disaster management, and environmental security. He has researched and published extensively on these issues in the last twenty years. More recently, he has also been writing critical notes, observations and perspectives on Darjeeling politics and political aspirations of the Indian Gorkhas.
He specializes and works around issues of regional development & planning, disaster management, and environmental security. He has researched and published extensively on these issues in the last twenty years. More recently, he has also been writing critical notes, observations and perspectives on Darjeeling politics and political aspirations of the Indian Gorkhas.
Vimal Khawas is founding member of the newly established Sikkim Central University and has significantly contributed towards its growth and development. His major edited books are: Sakarama Somayaji and Vimal Khawas, eds (2012), Environment, Development and Social Change in the Himalayan Region (New Delhi: Aakangsha Publication); and Bhaswati Das and Vimal Khawas, eds (2009), Gender Issues in Development: Concerns for the 21st Century (Jaipur: Rawat Publication).
Some of his journal articles are: “Earthquake Disaster and Vernacular Construction: Experiences from the Sikkim Himalayan Earthquake, 2011,” with Pribat Rai, Journal of Development Management and Communication 2.2: (April-June)176-182; “Environmental Challenges and Issues of Human Security in Eastern Nepal,” The Himalayan Miscellany, Volume 24 (2014): 30-60; “The Project of Gorkhaland,” Social Change 39.3 (2009): 435-439 [ISSN 0049-0857]; “Global Warming and Climate Change: Implications for Human Security of India,” Social Change 37.3 (2007): 92-119 [ISSN 0049-0857]; With N.J. Kurian, “Financing National Minimum Social Security,” Social Change 37.1 (2007):17-30 [ISSN 0049-0857]; With Sakarama Somayaji, “Capacity Building for Resettlement Management: A Note on the CSD Training Programme,” Social Change 36.1 (2006): 191-196, [ISSN 0049-0857]; “Conservation and Management of Water Resource in Sikkim Himalaya: Some Suggestions,” Spatio-Economic Development Record 12.4 (2005): 27-31 [ISSN 0971-4944]; “Urbanisation in the North-East: Patterns, trends and policy prongs,” Social Change 35.2 (2005): 47-69 [ISSN 0049-0857]; and “Environment and Rural Development in Darjeeling Himalaya: Issues and Concerns,” Spatio-Economic Development Record 10.2 (2003): 27-33 [ISSN 0971-4944].
Some of his book chapters are: “Pathways for Climate Resilient Livelihoods: The Case of a Large Cardamom Farming in the Dzongu Valley of the Tista River Basin, Sikkim Himalaya,” in Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific Regio, ed, Filho, Walter Leal (Springer, Switzerland); and “Indigenous Knowledge in Use of Disaster Risk Reduction: A Case of Sikkim Himalaya,” in Nair, Abhishek and Pramod K. Sing, (eds) Proceedings of the International Conference on Pathways to Climate Resilient Livelihoods in the Himalayan River Basins, IRMA, Anand, Gujarat.
