ARUNACHAL PRADESH: STAKEHOLDERS DISCUSS ‘CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE), the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt of India has initiated a new programme titled “Human and Institutional Capacity Building (HICAB) in Climate Change for Indian Himalayan Region”. The HICAB programme proposes to lay special emphasis and focus on the North Eastern states.

To participate in the HICAB programme for Arunachal Pradesh, a meeting on “Climate Change and its Implications in Arunachal Pradesh” was conducted on Tuesday at NERIST, Nirjuli under the chairmanship of its Director, Prof H S Yadav.

Eleven other institutes and organizations namely, Rajiv Gandhi University, NIT Arunachal Pradesh, College of Horticulture and Forestry, CAU Pasighat, State Forest Research Institute, Geological Society of India, State Remote Sensing Application Centre, AP State Council for Science and Technology, Water Resources Department, State Climate Change Cell (NMSHE) of Itanagar, Central Water Commission, and GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development participated in the meeting.

Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Advisor/ Scientist G and Head, Climate Change Programme, DST, GoI and his team apprised the participants about the HICAB programme through video conferencing. He invited all the participating organizations to send him expression of interest/ concept note for R&D grants in consultation with user departments for solving specific problems related to Arunachal Pradesh under any of the following four sub-themes such as climate change vulnerability and impact, Meteorology, Glaciology and Hydrology, Bio-diversity and flora/fauna, and Health and Livelihood. The research proposals will be discussed in a national workshop to be held in August this year and selected projects will be funded within this financial year.