Himachal mooting Environment Fund
Shimla: Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister, emphasized the need for exploration of possibilities for the creation of Environment Fund in association and active participation of the people from all walks of life to generate funds to carry environment protection activities in the state. He was delivering presidential address in the one day Workshop on Climate Change: Perspective and Opportunities in Context of Himachal Pradesh organized by the Department of Environment, Science and Technology in association with HP State Council for Science and Technology and HP State Pollution Control Board, here today.
Chief Minister directed all the state departments to introduce carbon audit system and recast their strategies to take environmental impacts into account and considerably reduce the emission of carbon dioxide gases. He said that no endeavour of the state government in this direction could achieve success unless actively supported by the people from all walks of life in the state. He said that multi level, multidisciplinary efforts were required at the government, societal and individual level to reduce ‘Carbon Footprints’ to qualify for emergence of ‘Carbon Neutral State’ in the country. He said that damage to the ecology needed to be minimized keeping in view the developmental requirements of the society so that no adverse impact was visible on environment while proceeding ahead on the path of development simultaneously. He called upon the planners and other participants present in the workshop to meet the challenge of climate threat by developing best possible model of development by taking into account population expansion, needs for creation of employment through industrialization and development of tourism without taking further toll on the environment health of the state.
Prof. Dhumal said that environment protection efforts would achieve success only when it turns into the mass movement and every individual take active part in such activities for which the entire official and NGOs needed to work in complete harmony and motivate the masses about the drastic impact of the degrading environment, the world over. He said that the state was the custodian of environmental assets valued at Rs. 1.5 lakh crore and raised the demand for adequate compensation by the Government of India to maintain and preserve the Himalayan ecology which leaves impact over the environmental conditions in the entire northern region of the country. He said that it had been the joint responsibility of every government at the centre and state to contribute significantly towards the protection of the environment. He said that the state deserved reasonable payment for the environmental service it was rendering to the nation.
Chief Minister said that the state government had initiated various steps to increase the green cover in the state which included plantation of broad leaved trees on the road sides by the Public Works Department to supplement the plantation campaigns of State Forest Department. He said that such activities would ultimately benefit the local people as well which would be able to derive various benefits from such plantations. He suggested that every department’s future plan needed to take into account the environmental impact of development measures and beginning made by conducting an environmental audit of their activities. He also called upon the corporate houses to support the government initiatives aimed at reducing the emission of green house gases and to adopt clean and energy efficient technologies.
J.P.Nadda, Forest and Environment Minister, said that the state government had taken up the issue of setting up a Regional Centre for Monitoring of Glaciers in the state to carry study of the impact of the climate change over the same. He said that the Bio-Carbon Project proposed for implementation in the state would be treating 12,000 hectares of land of 281 gram panchayats with plantation of broad leaved plants which would be able to absorb carbon gases after four years of plantation. He congratulated the Chief Minister for getting ‘Diamond State Award’ for the state recently.
Smt. Asha Swaroop, Chief Secretary, highlighted the initiatives taken by the State Government to deal with the issue of climate change participation. She said that in order to respond effectively to the challenge of climate change, the State Government had constituted a State Level Governing Council on Climate Change, chaired by the Chief Minister to dovetail all issues pertaining to climate change in planning process.
Smt. Sarojini Thakur, Principal Secretary, Environment, Science and Technology welcomed the Chief Minister and outlined the objectives and aim of the workshop.
Prof. N.H.Ravindranath, Chairman, Centre for Sustainable Technology, Indian Institute of Sciences, Banglore, delivered key note address highlighting the scenario prevailing in Himachal Pradesh. Dr. ARvind Bhatia and Navin Chopra, Directors of Assure Corporate Solutions deliberated upon the subject.
