Additional pressure on N-E
SHILLONG: Meghalaya Additional Chief Secretary K.S. Kropha on Wednesday expressed concern over the frightening ‘change and evolution of weather patterns and precipitation’.
Speaking at the Expert Consultation Prioritizing Actions under Meghalaya’s State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) on Wednesday, he wished Meghalaya and Shillong in particular would remain “a pleasant hill station” over the coming years and not suffer the consequences of climate change.
Wondering how the ecosystem and people could adapt to such changes, he said the crux of studying climate change is how people ‘learn and adapt’ to such climate changes so that it does not become threatening.
The programme was organized by the Forest and Environment Department, along with the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority with Technical Support from GIZ.
Prof. NH Ravindranath, an expert on climate change from Centre for Sustainable Technologies, IISC, Bangalore, gave a brief presentation on Climate Change and Meghalaya.
He succinctly spoke on why Meghalaya should worry about climate change and listed some poignant points such as the NE region is subjected to large current climate variability – year to year variation – NE region is subjected to frequent floods and droughts, and large scale climate change projected for NE region and Meghalaya has some of the most vulnerable districts.
He reiterated on the point that large dependence of local communities on natural resources and climate sensitive sectors has led to the degradation of natural resources. He also stressed on the point that climate change is an additional pressure on the North East Region.