The 1st edition of Natural Hazard Symposium for Indian Himalayas is organized by the Department of Hydrology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee during October 25-28, 2021 in online mode. The symposium emphasized on the theme of “Current and future direction of research in Himalaya”. At the outset, Prof. Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee inaugurated the symposium, and highlighted that the contemporary world is facing increasingly complex risks. Prof. Brijesh Kumar Yadav, Head, Department of Hydrology, discussed about the achievements of the department. Prof. Oliver Günther, President of the University of Potsdam, Prof. Axel Bronstert, University of Potsdam, Germany and Prof. Ankit Agarwal, Convener NSIH provided valuable insights on the current and future research in the Himalayan region, need for creation of dialogue among stakeholders, and develop new skills for early career researchers. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jürgen Kurths, PIK, Germany initiated the welcome session of the symposium and highlighted that we need a method to reconstruct and analyze a complex network from observational and reanalysis data which enables us to uncover relations to global and regional circulation patterns in oceans and atmosphere, which leads to better predictions of the onset of the Indian Summer Monsoon and El Nino.