GUWAHATI: Experts have welcomed the creation of a separate department of climate change to tackle various threats posed by the menace, besides taking steps for adaptation and mitigation of global warming.
Announcing the setting up of the new department on the occasion of World Environment Day, the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that this would go a long way towards making Assam a key global leader on issues related to climate change.
The role of the department includes adaptation and mitigation of climate change, he said.
Environment experts feel that the creation of the department shows that the government is giving enough importance to the issue of climate change which is critically important for global as well as regional state issues.
“I warmly welcome this decision.
The issue of climate change is very much important for Northeast, especially for Assam.
Assam is one of the most vulnerable state in India to climate change because of our very unique topography and physiographic location, the state’s dense network of rivers and also due to the state’s location in an area where the Southwest Monsoon dominates our lives, the agricultural economy to a big extent,” Partha J Das, who heads the Water, Climate & Hazard Division of Guwahati-based green NGO Aaranyak.
“The creation of this department will go a long way in giving a boost to the climate change campaign.
This is a progressive step and hoping that the government will take a proper plan of action with the help of relevant experts and people with necessary experience.”