Northeast region to feel the heat of climate change

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 5: Climate change experts on Wednesday observed that the north eastern region is also expected to face the severe impact of climate change as mountains are “more vulnerable” to the climate change and temperature rise.
For this a multi-disciplinary action is need of the hour in tackling climate change impact in the mountain areas especially in the north eastern region, according to Prof NH Ravindranath of Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science Bangalaru.
Responding to a question during the plenary session on Climate Resilient Agriculture held as part of World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on Wednesday, Prof Ravindranath stressed the need to have better coordination among the concerned stakeholders. The programme is being organised by The Energy and Resources Institute(TERI).
Despite all the initiatives, the temperature will cross 1.5 to 2 degree Celsius by 2025 as climate change is already happening here, Prof Ravindranath observed. “This will be an additional stress to our farmers. So we need to do lots of works to address the issue,” he felt.
Sharing a similar sentiment, Prof Pramod Aggarwal who leads the South Asia Regional Program for CGIAR, a global agricultural research partnership, also admitted that many research on various adaptation initiatives are taking place to tackle the situation in North East.
“But it is no easy to spell out the steps to be taken up at this stage,” Prof Pramod who holds two PhDs on Life Science from separate universities added. The media here can play an extremely important role as things should not be kept in isolation at this juncture.
Highlighting the climate change impact on global perspective, he also informed the gathering that 32 to 39 percent crops yield are sensitive to climate and added that the temperature rising close to 1 degree Celsius is likely to impact the global food security as tropical region are expected to face more heat.
“So it is important to develop climate smart village approach besides scaling up the adaptation options,” he observed. “We need to have much better evidence and knowledge to tackling the issue besides encouraging incentive mechanisms.”
In his presentation during the climate resilient agriculture session, Director of Ireland-based Sustainable Food System David Butler talks about tackling climate change impact through adaptation activities via livestock considering the advancement of Ireland’s adequate grass land.
So livestock production could be a smart model in tackling the issue, he added and informed that Ireland’s milk production is on the rise.
However interestingly, distinguished fellow of TERI S Vijay Kumar, a retired IAS officer, in an interaction in the day’s media colloquium of the ongoing WSDS told the reporters of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka that India’s scheme such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) could be helpful in achieving the sustainable development goal of the country besides giving support to other development activities including the issues of tackling climate change.
Highlighting the advancement of the scheme in places such as Adnhra Pradesh, Vijay Kumar, one of the key men for new approach to poverty elimination in India, said, “The concept of MGNREGA is good. But people are not using it properly.”