President of the World Environment Foundation, UK, Madhav Mehra has called for initiating steps to ensure that the increasing greenhouse emissions are controlled to make the earth a safer place to live.

He was interacting with scientists, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and representatives of the local administration at Palampur in Kangra district, today.

He said if immediate steps were not taken to check the greenhouse effect, universal temperature would rise by 3 to 5°C by 2050. It would deprive the high mountains of their snow cover and inundate large areas, thus causing misery and havoc in the world.

In order to ensure a healthy life for the coming generations, it was essential that the today’s generation initiated steps to check this devastation, he added. He said the nature had its own system of recycling its waste and that was the reason that nature left no waste while human beings created huge quantities of waste annually without resorting to ways and means to recycle it. He said an average Indian utilised 6 tonnes of natural resources annually, while the figure was 72 tonnes in case of an American.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, Palampur MLA and CM’s political adviser Brij Behari Lal Butail said whenever humanity had harmed nature, the natural forces had taken their revenge by causing misery to the people. He lauded the role of NGOs for creating awareness about the need to control greenhouse emissions and check environmental devastation.

He briefed about the steps being taken by the state government to control pollution while continuing development. He said efforts were also being made to make Palampur a clean and green town so that tourists and locals could enjoy its natural beauty.

Later, while initiating an interactive discussion on climate change, K.B. Ralhan, regional director of the World Environment Foundation and president of the Palampur Welfare and Environment Protection Forum, said the ozone layer that protects the life on earth by blocking the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun has been severely depleted due to the release of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the upper atmosphere.

Dean of the college of home science of Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur, Manoranjan Kalia expressed concern over the depleting environment by giving examples of weather changes in the world. He stressed the need to take steps to check environmental degradation at the earliest.

SDM C.P. Verma said each individual should ensure that he was not a polluter.