Climate Change: What is Meghalaya’s initiative to deal with climate change, which can show the way to the whole country

Climate Change: In many states of India, now the effect of climate change has started to be seen clearly. Unseasonal rains and hailstorms in UP, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab are the effect of climate change. Due to this affecting the common life, the farmers have also suffered a lot. At the same time, in all the states of the Northeast, the bad effect of climate change is visible to a lesser extent than in the rest of the country. Severe floods and landslides in the north-eastern states are the result of this.

Due to unseasonal rains in the North-East, both the quality and yield of tea in Assam have been badly affected. Not only this, the crisis of clean drinking water is also increasing in some areas. Apart from this, many rare forests are disappearing in North East India, which is famous worldwide for its biodiversity. If nothing is done in time, then their existence will end completely. To deal with this, some states including Meghalaya have taken initiative to deal with the ill effects of climate change. It is expected that the initiatives of these states can show the way to the rest of the country to deal with the effects of climate change.

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15% of the budget allocated for this item
Meghalaya’s CM Konrad Sangma government is looking very serious to deal with the bad effects of climate change. In fact, the Sangma government has allocated 15 percent of the state’s total budget to deal with climate change. The Sangma government has made a provision of Rs 3,412 crore in the budget for the financial year 2023-24 only for projects related to climate change. Experts say that for the first time the government of Meghalaya has presented a climate action budget, which shows the seriousness of the state government in this direction. Before Meghalaya, the Manipur government had presented a state action plan to deal with the ill effects of climate change.

What is the plan of the Meghalaya government?
The ecology of Meghalaya is very delicate. If this is adversely affected by climate change, then the livelihood of lakhs of people of the state will also be badly affected. In such a situation, the Meghalaya government is emphasizing on projects related to environmental sustainability, forest management and water harvesting. Work is going on in Meghalaya on projects worth Rs 2,500 crore related to them. At the same time, in the year 2023-24, infrastructure will be prepared at 300 places in the state for water harvesting at a cost of 2.5 crores. The Sangma government is also focusing on increasing the forest area of ​​the state. In the budget 2023-24, it has been said that in the last five years, 88 lakh saplings have been planted for 10,000 hectares of new forest area.

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What is Green Meghalaya Project?
Under the Green Meghalaya project, many facilities including cash are being provided to encourage the local people for forest conservation. During the current financial year, more than Rs 13 crore has been spent for 16,000 hectares of forest area. The government wants to preserve 50,000 hectares of forest area in 5 years under the project. Rs 250 crore will be spent on this. In a study by IIT Guwahati, three states of the region have been described as most sensitive to climate change. It has been said in the report that the tea plantation areas of Assam have been receiving unseasonal heavy rains for a few years. Due to this, the tea plants get drowned in the water and the fertile soil gets washed away.

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Why is Assam being affected?
According to the report, due to climate change, an increase of 0.049 degree centigrade has been recorded in the maximum temperature in Assam in two decades. In the same period the average rainfall has decreased by 10.77 mm. Its effect is visible on the production and quality of world famous Assam tea. At the same time, the Manipur government has also drafted the second edition of Manipur State Action Plan on Climate Change, its action plan on climate change. Agriculture, water resources, forest resources and health will be included in the draft. By changing the place, terrace farming is believed to be responsible for intensifying the effect of climate change.

Climate change is affecting the quality and yield of Assam tea.

How is terrace farming responsible?
In Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram in the north-east, about five lakh people do terrace farming in 5,298 sq km. Environmentalists say that due to terrace farming, the incidents of land subsidence are continuously increasing in the Northeast. According to a report by Deutsche Welle, Professor Ebotombi Singh, Dean of the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at Manipur University, says that terrace farming should be shifted from areas near highways and rail lines. Manipur’s meteorologist Dr. KD Singh says that in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Siang district, mangoes have started bearing fruit even in winters. At the same time, many rare flora have reached the verge of extinction.

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Tags: Assam news, climate change, climate change in india, global warming, Manipur News, Meghalaya News, Northeast