All nine districts of Manipur have been found to be vulnerable to climate change, as per vulnerability assessment carried out by DST, Policy Coordinator and Programme Management Division, Department of Science and Technology (DST) senior advisor and head Dr Akhilesh Gupta said.
Gupta stated the above during a webinar held with state level media fellow recipients on Climate Change Reporting-II on Wednesday. It was organised by Manipur State Climate Change Cell, Directorate of Environment and Climate Change.
Addressing the online interaction, Gupta said that the climate change issues are mainly contributed by developed countries. However, its adverse effects have escalated everywhere and India is among one of the worst-hit areas by this phenomenon. To figure it out, DST carried out district-wise and sub-district-wise vulnerability assessment for all the states and union territories of Himalayan region and district-wise assessment for the rest of the country.
The assessment report found that all the nine districts of Manipur are vulnerable to climate change. To mitigate and fight the consequences of this phenomena, proper strategies and policies have to be chalked out. The issue has to be fought both by the state and central government collectively, he added.
He further said that agriculture is the key area where it is hugely impacted by climate change. As 80 per cent of the population of the state are engaged in agricultural activities, concerted efforts should be made to fight the challenges faced by the farmers due to climate change. For this, the first and foremost thing to do is to change the agricultural practices from traditional to smart and climate resilient agricultural practices. Otherwise, the state would encounter food insecurity in the future.
Gupta also pointed out the recent ‘intergovernmental panel’ on climate change and cautioned that serious effort is highly needed to prevent its consequences which are predicted to happen after next two decades. He also said that temperature will rise to 1.5 degree Celsius which will ultimately lead to an increase in problems of heat wave, erratic monsoon, increase sea level and others.
He further informed that DST has started the climate change programme in 2009-2010 and various steps are being taken up to control and combat the global phenomenon. He also encouraged young journalists to play an important role in creating massive awareness on climate change to tackle it effectively.
