NEW DELHI, MARCH 15: Commissioner Secretary, Forest Ecology and Environment, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, attended the two-day National workshop on Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Dissemination for States and Union Territories of India here.
DST Secretary Ashutosh Sharma, while addressing the representatives of States and Union Territories, said that “climate adaptation is a collaborative effort between appropriate use of technology, vision that produces policies, change at ground level and engagement of local communities. These vulnerability maps will play a crucial role in this effort.”
On the occasion, Commissioner Secretary Dwivedi said that “vulnerability assessment will be useful for officials, decision makers, funding agencies and experts to have a common understanding on vulnerability and enable them to plan for adaptation, especially in the state of Jammu and Kashmir with three distinct and complex eco-regions.”
Earlier, Coordinator State Climate Change Centre, J&K, Majid Farooq presented the vulnerability assessment compiled for the state.
The IISc Bengaluru, IIT Guwahati, IIT Mandi and Scientists across the 12 Himalayan States supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC) which is implementing the Indian Himalayas Climate Adaptation Program (IHCAP)have developed a climate change vulnerability map for Himalayan region, that will help prioritize resource allocation to address these vulnerabilities.
The exercise is unique because for the first time all the 12 Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) States have used a common framework resulting in the production of comparable state level and within the state, district level vulnerability maps.
An indicator-based approach based on socio-economic factors, demographic and health status, sensitivity of agricultural production, forest-dependent livelihoods and access to information, services and infrastructure was adopted to arrive at a common framework for vulnerability assessment.
