Srinagar: The Department of Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir (KU) hosted a seminar on ‘Climate Change Vulnerability of J&K’ here at EMMRC auditorium KU on Friday.
During the seminar which was jointly organized by the Dept. of Earth Sciences, KU and Kashmir Chapters of the Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) and Indian Society of Geomatics (ISG) the experts discussed threadbare various aspects of the Climate Change with special focus on the vulnerability of various sectors like water resources, glaciers and agriculture.
Delivering his presidential address Vice Chancellor, University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad said “The issue of climate change is not a local problem but a global one as rising global temperature is a concern at global level. If this phenomenon continues, there shall be alarming repercussions in future.”
He said that Kashmir University is working on different aspects of climate change and is seeking help both at individual and institutional levels.
“We as a society should try our level best to address the climate issues and we at university are open to any such collaboration or joint effort which is aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change on local flora and fauna,” added Prof Talat
Delving further on the theme of the seminar Prof Talat informed the participants that University has already constituted a Working Group on Climate Change Research with membership from the academia, government and the civil society, so that the outcome from the past and ongoing research are optimally used for developing a robust strategy for the mitigation and adaption to the climate change in the region.
Registrar and DCDC, KU Prof Neelofar Khan who guest of honour on the occasion deliberated upon the need to sensitize the young generation towards the environmental issues at the school level so that they may come forward and contribute towards spreading awareness in the society.
She further asked the researchers and academicians for their contribution in tackling the issue of climate change.
The seminar was organized in the backdrop of the recent IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels related global green house gas emission pathways.
Earlier in his welcome address Prof. Shakeel Romshoo Head Department of Earth Sciences who is also Convenor of the seminar gave a power point presentation on the climate change scenario in J&K & highlighted how different climatic zones behave in Kashmir.
“Climate change is the thrust of research in University of Kashmir.” He further added that at Kashmir University we have taken ten bench mark glaciers under a project to study the changes occurring in these glaciers over a period of time.
Prof Romshoo added that that the indicators of climate change are evident in the state of state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in the form of the changes in the distribution and structure of ecosystems, recession of snow and glaciers, increasing temperatures, changes in the form of precipitation, streamflow changes, extreme weather events, shifting tree line, loss of biodiversity, and several other indicators.
“Thedata indicates that the state shall witness significant impacts of climate change in all the three major regions of the state. The temperature and precipitation projections from the climate model indicates that by the end of 21stcentury the state would witness significant impacts of climate change on various sectors, ecosystem processes and physical phenomena like weather etc. which would lead to there distribution and changes in the composition of vegetation, enhances now depletion and glacier recession, increased incidence of climate related hazards, significant changes instream flows posing serious challenges for biodiversity conservation, water availability, food security, hydropower generation and other key socio economic sectors in the region,” said Prof Romshoo.
A poster session on Climate Change Studies was also organised by the Department of Earth Sciences soon after the culmination of seminar in which students had a brief interaction with Prof. Talat, Prof. Romshoo and other faculty members of the Department.
A short documentary titled “Diminishing Weather Gods” directed by filmmaker Jalal Jeelani was screened at the beginning of the seminar.
Dr. Rakesh Chandra presented vote of thanks on the occasion.
