JAMMU: Highlighting the need for conserving environment and ecology, Advisor to the Governor Khurshid Ahmed Ganai today called for concerted efforts for taking corrective as well as preventive measures to arrest the environmental degradation and said that every section of the society should contribute its bit in the same.
The Advisor was speaking at the Indian Ecological Societys (IES) three days International Conference on Natural Resource Management: Ecological Perspectives hosted by Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), Jammu in collaboration with Centres for International Projects Trust (CIPT), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), NABARD and SERF India concluded today at SKUAST-J.
The Advisor while calling for undertaking a massive programme for creating awareness about the measures to be undertaken for environmental conservation asked the India Ecological Society to submit the recommendations which have evolved during the course of the seminar so that the State Government and other stakeholder can take follow up actions on these. He said that the onus also lies on the scientific community, experts and students to suggest the measures for the same. Students can also become the part of the solutions not only through the government but also through Non-governmental and international agencies so that they can broaden their scope of activity by getting suggestions from National and International experts besides the requisite funding for ecological and environmental protection he added.
Ganai while highlighting the need for conservation of forest, water, soil and land resources said that the need of the hour is to put immediate stop to deforestation and called for massive afforestation programme by the Government with active participation of the local communities. He also called for undertaking corrective measures for ensuring the preservation and protection of water resources in the State particularly the rivers and lakes. The deplorable condition of various water bodies of the State like Jhelum, Tawi, Chenab, Dal, Wullar, Sunisar, Mansar, is due to the siltation and encroachments and timely corrective measures should be taken for the same as they along with various other high altitude lakes form the main source of water for the State. These factors were the primary cause of the devastation done by floods in Kashmir during September-2014 he added.
A video message from Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate change was played as he could not make it to the conference. In his video message, he emphasized that for agriculture and rural development to be sustainable it must be ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just and based on a scientific approach. In addition, we need to build the capacities of the resource-poor households to obtain quality inputs and enable access to markets, so that they can produce more food more reliably. He opined that many global treaties have raised the concern to conserve natural resources for improving livelihood opportunities and enhancing the quality of the millions of small and marginal farmers living in abject poverty. It has been well recognized that the targets of the Millennium Development Goals can only be realized through improved technological options, institutional arrangements and appropriate policies in partnership with all stakeholders.
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