Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 19: Union Minister of State in PMO and North-East Region (with independent charge), Dr Jitendra Singh today asked the scientists and experts to go into the genesis of the challenges thrown by the climate change so that effective steps could be taken to prevent situation from worsening further.
Addressing a gathering of experts from different parts of country, prominent citizens and faculty of Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) at its campus after inaugurating two-day brainstorming session on climate change, Dr Jitendra Singh said, “it took several years to all of us to realize that something is actually happening to the climate”, adding “climate change has happened because of varied factors from various quarters”.
“We have driven ourselves to present situation intentionally or unintentionally over the years and intensity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that we don’t know when the winter comes and summer goes… we are witnessing unusual earthquakes, floods and other calamities, which cause massive destruction in terms of lives and properties”, he said.
Referring to devastating floods of September 2014 in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Minister said, “Kashmir floods were more man-made calamity than the natural one and clearly indicated that we are fiddling with the climate and inviting troubles for ourselves”, adding “though we are making efforts to minimize the adverse impact of climate change but it is just like chasing a running horse in view of immense damage already caused to the climate because of varied reasons”.
“While laying focus on preparedness to deal with catastrophes, we must also go into the genesis of challenges thrown by the climate change so that effective steps could be taken to prevent situation from worsening further”, he stressed. He asked the experts to involve all the stakeholders including the civil society during discussions on the climate change so as to generate awareness among the masses, which is imperative to minimize the impact of disasters.
“The involvement of stakeholders should be like the one that was witnessed in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which is yielding positive results throughout the country”, the Union Minister pointed out. He hoped that outcome of the brainstorming session on climate change would help in taking corrective measures so that climatic conditions don’t lead us towards disasters.
Earlier, Dr Ram A Vishwakarma, Director Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine threw light on the important aspects of the brainstorming session on climate change being organized by Jammu Chapter of National Academy of Sciences India (NASI). He said that objective behind organizing this programme was to discuss topics related to impact of climate change on public health and infectious disease burden, agriculture and animal health, melting glaciers and flooding of rivers, atmospheric sciences/green-house gasses emission etc.
“The brainstorming session will provide guidelines for spreading awareness as well as lead to preparation of a strategic vision document and creation of a policy framework to mitigate the challenges”, he said.
Prof Akhilesh K Tyagi, Dr Amit Sharma and Prof Ravinder Nath Gohil were among the dignitaries present on the occasion.
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