JAMMU: The Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing organized a stakeholder workshop for the preparation of the Climate Resilient City Action Plan for Jammu and Srinagar cities under the chairmanship of Commissioner Secretary Forest, Ecology and Environment, Sanjeev Verma, here today.
During the workshop, a discussion was held with the stakeholder departments to assess the existing status of service delivery and validated data sets to be collected for the GHG emissions inventory of the city to generate a carbon inventory of the city. Besides, the financial and policy-level implications of the plan were deliberated upon. The impact of different mitigation and adaptation interventions were also discussed with the stakeholders.
Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner Secretary said that the impact of climate change is gravely affecting the population so this is high time to work in the direction of climate adaptation and mitigation. He spoke about various schemes initiated by the Prime Minister like Panchamrit and Mission Life. He added that the mitigation of climate change is a global phenomenon but the solutions are local and can be brought into action by a behavioral change in our daily routines.
He emphasised that the ‘Climate Resilient City Action Plan’ or ‘CRCAP’ for Srinagar and Jammu cities is a movement towards planning at the local level. The plan will evolve with time but needs decentralized planning and mainstreaming of funds from all allied departments.
Commissioner Secretary also emphasised that prominence should be given to carbon neutral panchayat to make them workable and profound at the panchayat level quoting the example of Palli Panchayat.
PCCF (HoFF,) J&K Forest Department, Dr. Mohit Gera, stated that a considerable increase in greenhouse gas emissions during the last fifty years has created an alarming situation in relation to the impact of climate change. He added that J&K is blessed with healthy forests and biodiversity associated with it for balancing and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of vulnerability, J&K ranks higher than the rest of the country due to high elevation and fragmentation as a large number of villages are dependent on natural resources.
He informed that the forest department in collaboration with local municipalities have taken a number of initiatives like Biodiversity Registers and Local Biodiversity Strategy Action plans and these can be incorporated in CRPCPs as a resilience measure.
Rakesh Kumar, Director DEE&RS, while speaking on the occasion, stated that cities have high risks and vulnerabilities due to the concentration of people in cities and the rapid rate of urbanization. The CRCAP will lay the foundation to plan for the vulnerabilities so that the cities are resilient enough to face natural hazards and bounce back into action again.
Various experts from TARU Leading Edge and Vasudha Foundation presented the vision for the Climate Resilient City Action plan.
The event was attended by Chairperson PCC, Director Social Forestry, Chief Wildlife Warden, Director Soil and Water Conservation Department, Director, Forest Protection Force, and officers from JalShakti (PHE, IFC, RTIC), UEED, R&B, JMC, JDA, Health, Disaster Management, PDD, PDC, AH, Smart City, Tourism, Agriculture, RD&PR, IIT Jammu, Jammu University, CUJ, Town Planning, Smart City, etc.
Later, a short technical session on Carbon Neutral Gram Panchayat – the models of UP, Palli, and Kerela was also organized to sensitize the participants about achieving net zero emissions at the grassroots level.
