Manmohan calls for saving Himalayan eco-system

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday emphasised the need for greater engagement and coordination with all the country’s neighbours who share the Himalayas and pointed out that some bilateral initiatives were being taken up with China and Bhutan in this respect.While a large part of the Himalayan range is within the Indian territory, there are other countries who share the mountain ranges with India, including Nepal, Bhutan, China and Pakistan.Dr. Singh was chairing a meeting of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change on the National Mission on Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-System. He said any comprehensive Climate Change Action Plan for the entire Himalayan zone would require coordinated action among all stakeholder countries.Expressing happiness that the mission — one of the eight identified in the National Action Plan for Climate Change — had come up with a set of concrete, immediate and long term measures, he said involvement of the local communities was indispensable in ensuring its successful implementation.

India had anecdotal evidence that glaciers may be receding. There was need for obtaining precise and carefully vetted data, both through satellite imaging and ground surveys. The establishment of a Centre for Glaciological Studies was welcome, he said adding that the initiative taken to commission a study on the Himalayan glaciers in collaboration with the ISRO was commendable.Describing the entire Himalayan zone, including the mountains, the foothills and the terai area, as an extremely fragile zone, he said that over the years, deforestation, demographic pressures and rapid and often uncontrolled urbanisation and construction with only marginal attention being paid to environmental safeguards had caused steady degradation.

The Hindu, 27th October 2009