Boka Rochill selected as a Climate Champion

DIMAPUR — Boka Rochill, a young climate advocate from Dimapur, has been selected as one of 35 Climate Champions under the second cohort of the National Youth Climate Consortium (NYCC), a flagship initiative by Bring Back Green Foundation, supported by YuWaah at UNICEF India.

This prestigious fellowship recognises young leaders between the ages of 18 and 29 who are committed to building climate-resilient communities through local advocacy and action, an update stated. The selected cohort represents 32 states and union territories across India, including island and Northeast regions, and reflects a pan-India representation and commitment to diversity and equity.

As part of the fellowship journey, Rochill attended an intensive Training of Trainers (ToT) from July 25 to the 28th in Dehradun, organised by Bring Back Green Foundation.

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The training was designed to equip fellows with knowledge and tools around stakeholder engagement, storytelling, policy engagement, and youth-led advocacy.

During the six-month fellowship, each Climate Champion will lead a grassroots project focused on one of four key areas including awareness and capacity building, youth mobilisation, research, or innovation, while directly engaging local communities and working with government stakeholders to ensure lasting impact. Fellows receive microgrants, mentorship, and support from a 25-member Technical Resource Group comprising grassroots experts, youth-led organisations, and sector specialists.

In its inaugural year, the NYCC fellowship impacted over 65,000 youth and community members across the country, and several alumni went on to represent India’s youth at global platforms such as COP29.

“This year’s cohort is expected to continue that legacy, with opportunities to contribute to international spaces like COP30, further ensuring that youth perspectives from the grassroots inform climate policy worldwide,” the update stated.

Rochill will be focusing on co-creating a community-led, evidence-based Heat Action Plan for Dimapur- that will inform, advocate, and set a city agenda for climate-resilient action, with the objective of integrating it into a long-term Climate Action Plan at both the city and state levels.

One of the key interventions he aims to initiate is ‘The Greening Dimapur Project,’ a community-driven effort to identify, map, and plant pocket forests, urban forests across wards and neighbourhoods to build long term urban resilience and enhance the city’s green cover tackling issues such as urban heat island effect, air pollution and urban flood mitigation.

The National Youth Climate Consortium continues to lead the way in building a participatory, bottom-up model of climate action, making youth-led engagement more equitable, participatory, and powerful than ever before.