The Environment Ministry has launched a novel initiative to bring together people living in the Himalayan region to promote a more Himalayan-friendly lifestyle. This is also aimed at fostering greater awareness amongst the people and promote the networking of agents of change working in the region.
The initiative called Climate + Change initiative will cut across local, linguistic, cultural and geographical boundaries to facilitate innovation toward climate-related adaptation and climate change mitigation. Addressing the parliamentarians from the Himalayan states on Tuesday, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar informed that this effort will provide a common platform for innovative
solutions to strengthen a resilient climate smart community across the Indian Himalayan region.
“Change in lifestyle and new innovations will happen only when people come together,” said Javadekar. Through this initiative, there will be a lot of activities across all Himalayan states. This will be a continuous process. After two years, a strong group of more than 5, 000 agents of change that will be a part of the Climate + Change initiative”, Javadekar added.
Javadekar further stressed on the involvement of representatives of the people for getting the desired results. He said that meetings with Members of legislative Assemblies, members of Panchayats and Members of Zila Panchayats need to be held from time to time.
He further expressed concern that solid waste management, E-waste management, construction waste management are a cause of worry in Himalayan states. ‘We want to put in place proper waste management mechanism even in small hamlets of hill states’, the Minister said.
Commenting on the recent floods in Chennai and earlier in Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand, Javadekar said that new rules for the River Regulatory Zones are being prepared and would be launched soon.