From Soil To Solutions: How Gram Panchayats Are Driving India's Climate Action

Mumbai: A special ‘Panchayat’ session – ‘Panchayats Leading India’s Climate Charge’ – held at the Jio World Convention Centre during the Mumbai Climate Week brought together grassroots leaders from six states, demonstrating that some of India’s most effective climate solutions are emerging from village councils, not conference rooms. 

Gram Panchayat representatives from Maharashtra’s first net-zero village, Karnataka, Kerala, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha highlighted the vital role of community stewardship in shaping localised climate action. The panel built on the Conference of Panchayats (CoP) initiative by Asar Social Impact Advisors, and Policy & Development Advisory Group (PDAG, continuing its focus on strengthening local leadership in climate action. 

Sharada Gaydhane, Sarpanch of Bela Gram in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, shared the story of how her village became India’s first net-zero Panchayat. "Climate change can be felt in the water we fetch, the food we grow, and the air we breathe. It affects our health, and that is my responsibility to do what’s best for my village. For us, climate action begins at home. When the Panchayat takes responsibility and people participate, change becomes real,” said Gaydhane. Under her leadership, climate action became a way of life in Bela Gram. 

"Every village festival, wedding, birth of a child, was marked by planting a tree and taking care of it. Over time, we planted almost 90,000 trees. We made concrete efforts to move away from chulas to LPG. We used panchayat funds for solar panels over anganwadis and panchayat offices. While waste began to be segregated at every doorstep, we took a vow to reject single-use plastics,” she added.

In 2024, Bela Gram Panchayat won the first prize in the Carbon Neutral Vishesh Panchayat Puraskar at the National Panchayat Awards, placing the village on the national map as a model for grassroots climate leadership. Her story set the tone for the session, which went on to showcase similar examples of practical, community-led solutions from across the country.

Jagadananda, Co-founder & Mentor, Centre for Youth & Social Development, speaking about the power of Panchayats and frontline leaders in shaping climate action, said, “The future of climate resilience lies in climate-smart Panchayats, where land, water, livelihoods and people converge at the local level. A climate-smart India begins at the Panchayat, closest to the risks, resources and resilience. Our collective future depends on investing in and strengthening these institutions, where people, ecosystems and democracy come together.”

The Mumbai Climate Week, held from February 17 to 19, marked India’s first platform dedicated to accelerating climate action, empowering Mumbai, India, and the Global South. The initiative reimagined critical climate solutions as interconnected, scalable innovations rooted in the complex dynamics of the region and its economies.

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