Govt sets the ball rolling for climate action plan

The Tribune , Thursday, September 29, 2011
Correspondent : Pratibha Chauhan / Tribune News Service

Shimla, September 28

The government has set the ball rolling for the preparation of its Climate Adaptation Action Plan, with vulnerability assessment right from the district to the sub-tehsil level and strengthening of data bank emerging as the focus areas.

Even though not placed among the high-risk states which would be impacted immensely by climate change, yet an exercise has begun to gear up to tackle the adverse effect of climate change and global warming. Reduced snowfall, glacial melting, shifting of the agro-climatic zones and erratic rain are some of the visible effects of climate change which the hill state is already witnessing.

“We need to undertake vulnerability assessment and the impact will obviously not be just negative but there will also be something positive,” said Principal Secretary (Power) Deepak Sanan, who also holds the additional charge of Forest and Environment. He chaired the meeting. He added that one area where more efforts needed to be made was preparing a data bank so that a proper assessment could be made based on the record.

Heads of several institutes and experts, including the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, the GB Panth Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Kullu, the Institute of Himalayan Bio-Technology, Palampur, Himalayan Forest Research Institute and the vice-chancellors of the horticulture university, Nauni, and the agriculture university, Palampur, today deliberated upon various aspects of climate change adaptation.

Even though data compilation is done by various agencies, including the World Bank-funded Hydrology project being run by the Irrigation and Public Health Department, is was felt that much more needed to be done on this front. “Even though there are conflicting views about shrinking of glaciers, since the issue could have far-reaching implications for Himachal, which is majorly into hydro-power generation, we need to take a closer look and prepare a data bank,” said Sanan.

“In Himachal we have eight agro-climatic zones and even a slight change in the climate will bring about a shift, but will at the same time increase our options,” said KR Dhiman, Vice-Chancellor of the horticulture university. He added that an assessment would be made about the impact on various resources during the next 20 years and the developing strategy to tackle it.

He added Himachal was the first state in the country which is inching closer to becoming a carbon-neutral state and it would also take a lead in the formulation of a climate adaptation action plan.

 
SOURCE : http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110929/himachal.htm#3
 


Back to pevious page



The NetworkAbout Us  |  Our Partners  |  Concepts   
Resources :  Databases  |  Publications  |  Media Guide  |  Suggested Links
Happenings :  News  |  Events  |  Opinion Polls  |  Case Studies
Contact :  Guest Book  |  FAQs |  Email Us