Guwahati: Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh here over the weekend announced that a centre for studying climate change would be set up exclusively for the north-eastern States.
This centre will be anchored at the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and will have satellite centres in the region.
Committed
The Minister made the announcement during the first of a series of national consultations initiated by him here on the draft mission document of the Green India Mission.
He said the government was committed to finding resources for funding the Green India Mission, which is estimated to cost Rs. 44,000 crore and is aimed at doubling the area to be afforested or eco-restored to 20 million hectares in the next 10 years. The consultation was organised by the Centre for Environment Education (CEE).
The mission document will be finalised based on the series of seven national consultations, including the first consultation held here on Friday covering the north-eastern region.
Stressing the need for focusing on the eastern Himalayan region for climate change monitoring, Mr. Ramesh said all existing monitoring stations for climate change and weather were located in the western Himalayan region.
The Minister also said that he had asked the Botanical Survey of India and Zoological Survey of India to focus on the north-east region and marine areas of country where the biodiversity is very rich and important.
The Mission proposes a fundamental shift in the mindset from traditional focus on increasing the quantity of forest cover, to increasing the quality of such cover. Mr. Ramesh cited that in Assam the forest cover is 38 per cent, but 40 per cent of it is degraded.
He underscored the need for checking further encroachment in forest areas and called for involving the local elected bodies for successful implementation of the mission. Of the total 21 lakh hectares of notified forest areas in Assam, about four lakh hectares are under encroachment.
Mr. Ramesh said India is one of the few countries that have added forest cover. The country added three million hectares of forest cover in past 10 years while Brazil lost about 2.5 million hectares per year during this period. He said, however, credible and physical monitoring of forest cover on real time basis would be possible once Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the satellite to monitor Green House Gas emissions in 2012 and a dedicated forestry satellite in 2013.
