The 38th Indian Geography Congress got under way here on Monday with a focus on “Sustainable Development Environmental Vulnerability and Geospatial Technology.” It is being organised by the Department of Studies in Geography on the Manasagangotri campus and nearly 500 delegates from across the country are participating in it.
Prof. R.P.Misra, former Vice-Chancellor, Allahabad University, delivered the keynote address and said that economic growth impacting environment could not be construed as sustainable at all. The country’s forest cover is declining impacting the environment directly and the authorities are talking of smart cities and not smart villages to stem the rural-urban migration, he added.
Prof. S.R.Niranjan, Vice-Cahancellor, Gulbarga University, Kalabuargi, who was one of the speakers, underlined the importance of exchange of ideas in the context of climate change and global warming and said that it affected all. He said nations were bound to attain the sustainable development goals enunciated by the United Nations and it was a challenge to ensure that development was not at the cost of environment and other parameters. There was a need to conserve biodiversity and forests which impacted the quality of environment on which human life depended, he added. Failure to ensure agriculture sustainability will have a negative impact on the rural poor while forest degradation will only accelerate the pace of environmental pollution, warned Prof. Niranjan.
The participants will deliberate on issues and challenges pertaining to sustainability, including increasing energy and material efficiency in production process, reducing wastes from production and promoting recycling, promoting the use of new and renewable energy sources, using environmentally sound technologies for sustainable production, increasing awareness for sustainable consumption, conservation of natural resources etc.
Besides, there will be technical sessions on Indian Geography: the emerging vistas, Geography as a professional discipline, remote sensing, GPS and GIS in geographical studies, physical geography and earth system science, climate change, biodiversity and environmental challenges etc.
Prof. K.S.Rangappa, Vice-Chancellor, University of Mysore, S.C. Rai, secretary general, National Association of Geographers India and others were present.
