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Article History

Received: 7 March 2024

Accepted: 4 December 2024

First Online: 20 December 2024

Competing interests

: The author declares no competing interests.

: This study was approved by the ethics committee of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (EPICC, 91447c), on 10.09.2019. The study was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and institutional regulations governing the research involving human participants. While no specific approval number was issued, the committee’s approval covered interview-based data collection from rural communities in Uttarakhand, with strict measures in place to ensure confidentiality and anonymity of all responses.

: The lead author obtained informed written or oral (those who were illiterate) consent from all participants involved in the study prior to the conducting interviews. Informed consent was obtained between September and November 2019. The scope of the consent included participants voluntarily agreeing to participate, their interviews to be recorded, transcribed and to use the data for publication purposes. The participants were informed about the objectives of the research study, the confidentiality of their responses, and their right to withdraw at any time without any consequences. No financial or other incentives were provided for participation. All data were anonymised to protect participant identity, in accordance of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Parliament and the Council 2016/679. All participants provided consent before engaging in the study.