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Government of India

Expert Brainstorming Session on Riparian Zone Design and Management

July 1, 2025

About the Event

As part of a tripartite series, NIUA hosted its third expert consultation to support the development of national guidelines for planning and managing riparian buffers in urban India.

Panellists included eminent experts: Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Chief Advisor, NIUA; Bijendra Swaroop, Executive Director, Projects, NMCG; Dr. C.R. Babu, CEMDE, Delhi University; Dr. Sudipto Chatterjee, The Nature Conservancy India; Archana Chatterjee, IUCN; Sunpreet Kaur, The Nature Conservancy India

The consultation focused on four core questions: What should a national framework for riparian buffers look like? What key thematic areas must the guidelines cover? How do we address the challenges of land procurement, zonation complexity, and public encroachments, amongst others? What’s needed to mainstream riparian buffers into urban planning?

Experts highlighted the urgent need to define riparian buffers clearly, distinguish them from floodplains, identify positive interventions, avoid ecologically harmful practices, along with discussing real-life case studies from across the country as examples of what has worked and what has not.

This initiative responds to a city-level demand under the River Cities Alliance (RCA) to build capacity and provide actionable guidance. NIUA is taking the lead to fill existing knowledge gaps in cities about riparian buffers — why they are needed, how they work, and what processes river cities can follow to integrate them into their river plans.