International Meet on Climate Change organised
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, September 22 2015: The inaugural function of the two-day International Meet on Climate Change organised by the Department of Social Work, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Regional Campus, Manipur in Collaboration with the United NGOs Mission, Manipur, Centre for Research and Advocacy, Manipur & Biodiversity Ecology & Environment Network, Manipur was held on Tuesday at the Lamyanba Shanglen, Imphal East.

Dr RK Nimai, Consultant, Government of Manipur, and Dr M Homeshwor Singh, Director, Directorate of Environment Government of Manipur was the chief guest and guest of honour of the inaugural function, respectively.

Professor W.Vishwanath Singh, Dean, School of Life Sciences, Manipur University presided the Inaugural Function.

The welcome address was delivered by Dr Kamei Beeju, co-convener of the International Meet.

Dr RK Nimai observed that global warming and climate change is natural cycle of the earth.

Different phases such as the cold or the warm periods that earth witnessed was a natural.

It is not because of human activities that deserts were formed such as the Sahara desert.

The tendency of climatologist to say anthropogenic activities resulted in climate change is slightly misplaced.

Take for instance, HIV/AIDS is a number one killer and there are other deadly diseases.

So it is the scientists who created the panic.

In Manipur, micro climatic changes are taking place because plants have been cut down.

Imphal was full of wetlands, but how many survives today.

There is certainly relationship between human activity and climate.

Thus, there is greater responsibility, although climate change is natural, on the parts of human beings to conserve the ecosystem.

Human skills are needed very much in this context.

But there is a long way to go.

Plants are to be nurtured, simple act of planting is not enough.

One also needs to appreciate the aesthetics of loving the natural processes.

"We all need to contribute to flourish the mother earth because we have the ability so that we can breathe and live on this earth," Dr RK Nimai added.

Dr M Homeshwor Singh said that State Action Plan on Climate Change for Manipur started in the year 2010.Academicians, NGOs and community members were involved in the process of preparation of the action plan document and submitted the same in 2014 to the Government of Manipur.

He shared that on February there was a two-day workshop on linking National Action Plan and State Action Plan.

Out of eight missions at the national level, Manipur too earmarked eight most vulnerable areas and strategy was adopted.

As a result of it Phayeng was adopted as a carbon composite village in the pilot project initiative.

He also shared that Jharkhand and Manipur were identified as two model pilot states by UNDP (Global environmental facilities) to make energy efficient states.

In this the Directorate acted as a nodal agency.

He stated that NABARD acts as a financial agency for any kind of mitigation and adaptation projects based on livelihood.

Agriculture is the main target for adaptation project and solar powered pumps would be used to irrigate the agricultural fields to compensate yields.

The Directorate of Environment has identified Wabagai where vast areas of agricultural lands are available.

"We are also witnessing new forms of threats to health as a result of climate change" .

He concluded that capacity building is very important to meet challenges of climate change.

Action plan can undergo changes with changing times, and thus, meets such as the present one are very important to collectively face the threats of climate change.

Professor W Vishwanath Singh who presided the function observed that there are two ecosystems such as terrestrial ecosystem and aquatic environment.

"Focusing on the latter he remarked that two-third of the whole world is covered by water but water we need (fresh) constitutes only 0.01 percent of the total amount of water.

This small amount of water is very important for sustenance of lives," he said.

When there is climate change, all cold-blooded animals are badly affected as a result of change in temperature of water.

Their metabolic activities increase requiring more energy and oxygen.

But as a result of rise in temperature of water, oxygen content in the water decreases.

Parasites multiply much faster making fishes vulnerable to diseases.

Thus, fishes die very soon.

"In the eastern Himalayas including northeast region, we have cold water where we are rearing carp fish, and when the water in this region get warmer due to global warming, it affects a lot to carp fish," Dr M Homeshwor said.

In the first technical session, entitled Climate Change, Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Environment, four resource persons presented papers.

A Brajakumar Sharma, Chairperson, Manipur Cultural Integration Conference, chaired the session.

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