The first meeting of the State Council for Climate Change was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar at the Secretariat, here, on Monday. An action plan worth Rs 9,000 crore was presented to minimize the impact of climate change in the State.
The Chief Secretary directed that a final shape be given to the plan in ten days after obtaining input from all the departments concerned. The plan will be sent to the Union Government for approval. Under the plan, Rs 80 crores worth of work would be done in the agriculture sector. This will involve improvement of soil health in the plains, and conservation of soil and water in the hills.
Apart from this integrated farming, rained agriculture will be promoted, along with research of various kinds, while ‘Village Knowledge Centers’ will be established among a group of villages. There will also be pre and post harvest management, crop insurance, marketing and technical support.
To promote forest and bio-diversity, Rs 832 crores will be spent on increasing the number of trees, improving the condition of degraded forests and increasing their density, along with management of human-wildlife conflict. Work will be done in increasing fodder availability for animal husbandry, establishing 19 nurseries to improve planting material, promoting better breed of domestic animals, and improving quality of veterinary hospitals, etc.
As part of disaster management, Rs 369 crores are needed for study of climate parameters, community level planning, threat perception, management of all important water reservoirs, rehabilitation of endangered villages, study of socio-economic conditions in remote areas.
Rs 104 crores will be spent on human resource related issues such as green buildings, integrated behavioral change, increase in mobile emergency vehicles and skill development. Under urban development, all urban bodies would be provided solid waste management, sewage treatment, pollution control projects, along with planned development, rainwater harvesting, etc.
Rs 108 crore will be spent on water resources under which a State water policy would be formulated, along with catchment area treatment, flood control, preventing misuse of water, etc.
Studies will be conducted on bearing capacity of tourist destinations, responsible and balanced tourism development, as well as people’s involvement. Similarly, work would be done in the areas of energy, roads, transport, etc., in the backdrop of environmental change.
Present at the meeting were Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma, PCCF Dr RBS Rawat, Principal Secretary, Forest, S Ramaswamy, Secretary, Tourism, Umakant Panwar, Additional PCCF, Environment, Jairaj and scientists of Pantnagar University, FRI, UCOST.