Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology Choudhary Lal Singh today said that people must plant trees and contribute back to the environment for the climate change, adding that mega environmental and plantation drives have been launched by Forest Department across the State to achieve better results in shaping up the degraded environment.This was stated by the Minister while addressing a large gathering of faculties, students and officers of Forests and its allied wings after inaugurating two-day National Workshop on Climate Crisis-Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies Science and Policy Interface jointly organized by Department of Environmental Science and State Climate Change Centre at Jammu University, here today.Vice-Chancellor University of Jammu, Prof. R D Sharma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ravi Kesar, Commissioner/Secretary Forests, Ecology and Environment Saurabh Bhagat, Director Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing O P Sharma, Convenor CCVAS University of Jammu Prof. Anil Raina, Ex-VC Gharwal University besides other senior officers of University of Jammu and Forests and its allied wings were present on the occasion.The Minister said change in climate, loss of biodiversity and depletion of natural resources have become serious challenge for modern civilization, because such changes are going to have long lasting effects on the future generation.“Much of this is nature controlled, but anthropogenic activities have also contributed towards worsening the situation, he said adding that climate change is partly natural and partly the resultant of so called developmental activities of human beings”.
Lal Singh further said that loss of biodiversity has resulted from climate change, but selective use of resources by human beings is also significant reason. He said all-natural resources which include land, water and energy are depleting because of their unscrupulous use and the population explosion.The Minister said that aim to organize the workshop for educating the students for developing in and around areas of the localities with green cover by planting ornamental, fruit and medicinal plants for health and good environ. He said ‘it is the duty of each person to save green gold in their areas.Choudhary Lal Singh said this is the best initiative taken by the University of Jammu to bring academicians, planners, administrators, researchers and other stakeholders from across the country to deliberate upon the challenges posed by global climate change and extreme events.He said that the climate change is the biggest environmental emergency that the earth faces today. Inevitable disasters have a multitude of serious implications for both environment and human society, he added.Later, the Minister released three books titled ‘Butterflies of Environment, Park, Raika and Neighbourhood complied by Taslima Sheikh, Emission in Inventory of CO2 in J&K a Sectoral Analysis and National Workshop on Climate Crisis.