TIRUPATI: The multitude of changes occurring in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), particularly extreme climatic events, is a wake-up call to develop strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change and look further into sustainable practices, says Director of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) V.B. Mathur.
Delivering a lecture on ‘Bioresources - Impact of Climate Change’, during the ongoing 104th Indian Science Congress (ISC) at Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) here on Friday, Dr. Mathur emphasised the need for protecting IHR as nearly six per cent of the country’s population live and depend on it.
“The region is also known for its rich and diverse life forms, a global biodiversity hotspot, alongside diverse social and cultural attributes. However, anthropogenic pressures and other factors have been impacting the fragile ecosystem,” he maintained.
Dr. Mathur further stressed on collaborations with domestic and foreign research institutes, as the aspect of climate change would require expertise from several fields.
He also elucidated on the work done by the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem’s (NMSHE) task force at the WII, i.e. ‘Assessment and monitoring of climate change effects on wildlife species and ecosystems’.
“Some of the major objectives include focused research on wildlife, analysis of climate change scenarios, identifying drivers of landscape change — both climate and anthropogenic, build capacities within WII, and much more,” he added.
Elucidating on their experimental studies, Dr. Mathur spoke about the need for fine scale climatic data and its details collected via data loggers established in Deodar Forests (2,500m), Birch Forests (3,800m), and trans-Himalayan cold desert (5,025m). He also spoke on citizen science initiatives — Wildlife Watch and revisiting the published studies about the region.
National Biodiversity Authority Chairperson B. Meena Kumari delivered a talk on ‘Impact of climate change in fisheries’.
With the sector being one of the major contributors for country’s foreign exchange (and also the cheapest protein for rural poor), Dr. Kumari called for tackling climate change to ensure food security and well-being of fishing-related communities.
She also spoke on the effects due to climate change in oceans (and water bodies) and its implications.
SVU former Vice-Chancellor R. Ramamurthi later spoke on the topic, ‘Climate change – impacts and mitigation strategies’.
