Scientists,experts discuss environment roadmap for state

was attended by researchers,scientists and academicians from across the state.

The scientists opined that an authoritative study about climate change in the context of Gujarat is absent. To which,Vijay Kumar,director of the Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology in Bhuj,said the Gujarat Ecology Commission and his institute had just embarked on such a study.

But scientists were mostly concerned with the future rather than the studies conducted in the past.

One of the scientists said “there is need to re-investigate the warming phenomenon in the state”.

A handful of them advocated a grassroots adaptation plan,with some claiming stagnation in marine fish catch because the sea had heated up.

In his keynote address,Principal Secretary of the Department of Environment and Forests S K Nanda said compromising on growth and development is out of question. He advocated clean technology as a mitigation measure for climate change.

“Technology is the light at the end of the tunnel and research and development is the beginning,” he said,

Asked if the government has plans to fund such initiatives,Nanda said funding could be obtained from various sources and not just the state or central government.

Deepa Gavali,an associate ecologist at the Gujarat Ecology Society at Vadodara,argued there is a strong need to diversify strategies based on which population group research is conducted.

“We cannot have a single mitigation policy for the whole state. We need to keep in mind the humanities and the social sciences,both when we go to the fields to research and while drawing up policies,” she said.

R Gopichandran,principal research scientist at the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute’s Environment and Climate Change Wing said that the

Montreal Protocol 1989,arguably the most successful international agreement on environment that banished the threat of Ozone depletion.

Gopichandran recalled that three scientists won the

Nobel Prize for their empirical analysis and the industries cooperated by switching from producing halogenated hydrocarbons believed to deplete the ozone layer to safer substances.

He also outlined the need for bodies like sector-specific assessment teams and a non-compliance mechanism that would penalise industries that refused to comply with a cut in their subsidies and resources for a certain period of time.

Companies to conserve bio-diversity on premises

Principal Secretary of the state’s Environment and Forest Department S K Nanda said Thursday any company that has been granted environmental clearance will be required by law to reserve an acre of land inside their premises to conserve the bio-diversity of the area. Nanda said at present a notification to ensure the presence of a “replica of biodiversity for reference” is being formulated. Companies will be monitored and penalised,in case they default,through the same process in which they are being monitored for environmental compliance.