Climate Change: Experts question efficacy of govt climate change mitigation plans | Bhubaneswar News
Bhubaneswar: As Odisha grapples with an unprecedented heatwave, experts and environmentalists raised questions about the efficacy of govt policies meant to mitigate climate disasters. While the state govt formulated extensive policies such as the Climate Change Action Plan and Heat Action Plans, the implementation has been largely superficial, said environmentalists.
“These policies look comprehensive on paper, but there’s a significant gap when it comes to ground-level execution. For instance, the Heat Action Plan mandates provisions to attend to heatstroke patients at primary and community health centres, establishment of cooling centres, but there is almost none in rural districts,” said an environmentalist.
The Heat Action Plan prepared at district-level aims to provide a framework for implementation, coordination and evaluation of response activities in cities or towns to reduce the negative impacts of extreme heat.
The primary objective is to spread awareness in places where extreme heat conditions exist or are imminent and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) to alert people at risk of heat-related illnesses to take precautions.
Odisha has also prepared a State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC) and conducted a Climate Change Impact Appraisal, a detailed climate coding exercise to identify the degree of climate linkage of various sectors. In the action plan, the govt has identified heatwave as a climate risk and chalked out required steps to mitigate its effect on people.
“In Odisha, 58,166 hectares of forest was diverted for execution of 523 projects in mining, industry, roads, rails, and other sectors till March 2021. The provision of compensatory forest that mandates planting 10 plants for cutting of one tree has not been implemented. The state is suffering from Empty Forest Syndrome. The govt must understand there is a difference between natural and manmade forests. Trees are there but no forests. Forests play an ecological role of attracting rain, maintaining ground water, and reducing heatwave. Artificial forest cannot fill up the gap,” said S N Patro, senior environmentalist.
Climate change is one of the main reasons for the high temperature and severe heatwave conditions, said Sandeep Patnaik, associate professor, school of earth, ocean and climate sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar.
“These policies look comprehensive on paper, but there’s a significant gap when it comes to ground-level execution. For instance, the Heat Action Plan mandates provisions to attend to heatstroke patients at primary and community health centres, establishment of cooling centres, but there is almost none in rural districts,” said an environmentalist.
The Heat Action Plan prepared at district-level aims to provide a framework for implementation, coordination and evaluation of response activities in cities or towns to reduce the negative impacts of extreme heat.
The primary objective is to spread awareness in places where extreme heat conditions exist or are imminent and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) to alert people at risk of heat-related illnesses to take precautions.
Odisha has also prepared a State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC) and conducted a Climate Change Impact Appraisal, a detailed climate coding exercise to identify the degree of climate linkage of various sectors. In the action plan, the govt has identified heatwave as a climate risk and chalked out required steps to mitigate its effect on people.
“In Odisha, 58,166 hectares of forest was diverted for execution of 523 projects in mining, industry, roads, rails, and other sectors till March 2021. The provision of compensatory forest that mandates planting 10 plants for cutting of one tree has not been implemented. The state is suffering from Empty Forest Syndrome. The govt must understand there is a difference between natural and manmade forests. Trees are there but no forests. Forests play an ecological role of attracting rain, maintaining ground water, and reducing heatwave. Artificial forest cannot fill up the gap,” said S N Patro, senior environmentalist.
Climate change is one of the main reasons for the high temperature and severe heatwave conditions, said Sandeep Patnaik, associate professor, school of earth, ocean and climate sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar.
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