Diva Sinha

Diva Sinha is a PhD candidate in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. She joined SOAS in April 2017. She holds a BA and an MSc in Environment, Politics, and Development from SOAS. She has also earned a certification in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) from the University of California, Davis.

Her doctoral research, “From Glaciers to Gridlines: Hydropower, Land Subsidence, Social Displacement, and Biodiversity Loss in Uttarakhand’s Mountain Valleys,” explores the ecological and social consequences of large dam development in India’s disaster-prone northwestern Himalayas. 

Hydropower is widely promoted as a cost-effective renewable and efficient energy source vital for reducing dependence on fossil fuels. With high conversion rates and low operational costs, it plays a significant role in global climate mitigation and sustainable energy transitions. Against this backdrop, Diva’s research evaluates the implications of both large- and small-scale hydropower expansion across the northwestern Indian Himalayas, with a particular focus on the disaster-prone and ecologically fragile towns of Joshimath and Vishnu Prayag in Uttarakhand. Her project investigates how unregulated dam construction in this geologically fragile region contributes to land subsidence, ecological degradation, biodiversity loss, forced displacement and compounds disaster risks. 

Adopting an interdisciplinary lens, her research draws upon seven intersecting frameworks—Political Ecology, Multispecies Political Ecology, Social-Ecological Systems, Critical Institutionalism, Environmental Justice, Disaster Governance, and Disaster Risk Reduction. Using a combination of GIS spatial data, interviews, community mapping, biodiversity monitoring and impact assessments, her research hopes to answer critical questions surrounding the implications of hydropower development in the region and propose sustainable mountain appropriate methods for development, policy, and disaster risk reduction in the Himalayas. 

Professionally, Diva served as a Project Administrator (2024-2025) and Project Coordinator (2022-2024) within the Research and Knowledge Exchange Department at SOAS, supporting more than thirty funded projects, including Dr Mayur Suresh’s Leverhulme-funded project, Professor Jieyu Liu’s ERC project, and numerous Research Culture Fund and Impact and Knowledge Exchange initiatives. Her responsibilities ranged from research-grant administration and budget management to the organisation of international academic conferences and workshops. She has also worked as a Research Assistant (2022-2022) on Dr Andrew Newsham’s Seedcorn-funded project examining climate adaptation and livelihoods in the Global South, interned (2024-2024) with wildlife-conservation organisations focused on the Bengal Tiger and Snow Leopard, and served as a Research Analyst (2021-2023).

Diva has contributed to SOAS Spirit and The UCL Tab, writing on environmental and ecological issues. Her recent article for The Conversation UK How India’s unplanned hydropower dams and tunnels are disrupting Himalayan landscapes attracted over 30,000 reads within two months of its publication and was republished by several prominent media platforms, including Factor This, Yahoo News UK, Tolerance.CA, Renewable Energy World, Phys.org, and Scroll India

She currently maintains an independent environmental blog, Project for Glaciers, Mountains, Rivers, Biodiversity and Energy, where she writes on issues of climate, ecology,  development, wildlife protection, and conservation.

She is a member of Free Tibet, Himalayan Nature Society, Colossal Biosciences and The Royal Society.
 

• How India’s unplanned hydropower dams and tunnels are disrupting Himalayan landscapes — The Conversation UK
• HS2 needs to be stopped: Here are all the reasons why London doesn’t need another rail service — The Tab
• Disposable face masks are killing the planet and we have to change now — The Tab
• Climate catastrophe continues as 2020 is ranked as the warmest year on record by NASA — SOAS Spirit

• Hydropower Development in the Himalayas
• Renewable Energy-Solar, Wind and Nuclear
• Climate Change Adaptation in Lesser, Greater and Trans Himalayan Region
• Disaster Management , Risk Reduction and Governance
• Wildlife Conservation and Biodiversity Loss
• Animal Welfare and Animal Rights
• Environmental Justice and Resistance Movements