Uttarakhand prepares Rs 9k-cr action plan on climate change

Climate change is said to be one of the causes of frequent natural disasters in the hill state

The Uttarakhand government is preparing an investment of Rs 9,000 crore to tackle climate change, said to be one of the causes of frequent natural disasters in the hill state. Floods in June in the state claimed thousands of lives.

An action plan was presented at the first meeting of the State Council for Climate Change under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar at the Secretariat here on Monday, according to a statement. The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma, Principal Secretary (forest) S Ramaswamy and Secretary (tourism) Umakant Panwar.

The chief secretary has directed that the plan be finalised in 10 days after receving inputs from the departments concerned, after which it will be sent to the Centre for approval.

Under the plan, Rs 80 crore would be spent on agriculture to improve soil health in the plains and conserve soil & water in the hills; integrated farming; research; and village knowledge centers. Other measures include pre- & post-harvest management, crop insurance and marketing & technical support to increase the farm growth.

The state would spend Rs 832 crores on afforestation, rehabilitating degraded forests, increasing forest density and managing human-wildlife conflict.

More fodder stocks would be provided for animal husbandry, 19 nurseries would be established to improve planting material and improving breed of domestic animals and quality of veterinary hospitals.

As part of disaster management, Rs 369 crores would be parked for study of climate parameters, community-level planning, threat perception, management of important water reservoirs, rehabilitation of endangered villages and study of socio-economic conditions in remote areas.

Human resource-related issues such as skill development would get Rs 104 crore. Under urban development, all urban bodies would be provided support for solid waste management, sewage treatment, pollution control, planned development and rainwater harvesting.

The government plans to spend Rs 108 crore on water resources under a state water policy that would deal with catchment area treatment, flood control and misuse of water.

Studies will be conducted on bearing capacity of tourist destinations and  responsible & balanced tourism development.