GUWAHATI, Dec 11 – Current policies are responsible for the loss of biodiversity, said Prof Udo Schickhoff of Germany, who is the chairman of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Biogeography and Biodiversity. He was addressing the inaugural function of the three-day IGU Commission seminar on ‘Land Use, Biodiversity and Climate Change’ at Cotton College KBR Auditorium here today.

Prof Schickhoff, a noted biogeographer reminded the gathering of the glorious heritage of the Indians in maintaining scientific temperament and the continuity of research in various fields of knowledge. This has made it possible for India to retain its diversity in all the fields, he said with the plea to stick to this glorious tradition.

One of the vice presidents of the IGU Prof Yukio Himiyama of Japan said that geographers can play a very important role in humanity’s fight to contain the phenomenon of global warming. Prof Himiyama released the souvenir of the seminar.

Inaugurating the seminar, IGU national committee member Prof RB Singh said that the rise of one degree Celsius of temperature results in the joblessness of about six million people. The IGU National Committee is taking up a project to assess the vulnerability and resilience of the people of the NE region, particularly in the Brahmaputra Valley, in the context of biodiversity loss and the subsequent changes, he said.

The inaugural session was also addressed by another IGU vice president Prof G Bellezza of Italy, Cotton College Principal Dr Indra Kumar Bhattacharyya, convenor of the seminar Dr Mahfuza Rahman and Head of the Department of Geography, Cotton College Dr Bhaben Chandra Kalita.

The inaugural function was followed by a plenary speech by Prof Wolfgang Albert Flugel of the University of Jena, Germany. Prof Flugel is also associated with the Brahmatwinn project, which has undertaken study of the Brahmaputra and the Danube river basins under an international collaborative project.

Prof Flugel said that studying the temperatures between 1000 AD and 2000 AD, scholars have projected that temperatures would rise in the range of 2.5 degree Celsius to 6 degree Celsius in the coming 60 to 70 years.

Though it is generally believed that transportation, energy production and other industrial activities are responsible for the rise in temperature, the fact remains that land use change is a big contributor to this phenomenon. He also maintained that global climate change is not throwing challenges to water management sector alone, other sectors are also facing serious threats.

Prof Flugel maintained that shrinking glaciers would aggravate the problems of flood and erosion and later on result in serious water-related crisis.

When some scholars pointed out to the fact that they have found some advancing glaciers in the Himalayan region, Prof Flugel said that he had no information about such glaciers. Prof Flugel and his colleagues are now concentrating more on the Bhutan- Sikkim region of the Himalaya.