With nations across the globe looking for innovative approach to monitor ecological challenges, India its longterm ecological observatories (LTEO) programme in Paris on the sidelines of the ongoing climate summit.This nationwide initiative will scientifically monitor natural landscapes.
The idea behind this move is to identify and moni move is to identify and monitor targeted socio-ecological challenges and help build capacity within India in the important area of climate change impact. The studies under the programme will indicate the need for imminent adaptation measures.
Under this programme, students and young scientists will also be trained through sustained longterm support for research in the area of climate change.The initiative will also help the country to have its own scientific data-base in this key area without depending on studies done abroad.
“Research on climate change is largely dominated by modellers and economists with futuristic projections. It is high time that biologists undertake targeted research with a view to discovering and compiling solid empirical data sets which separate the impact of change from background noise arising from local pollution, habitat fragmentation and climate variability while launching the initiative.
The move is quite significant as the impact of climate change and factors like temperature and rainfall on various ecosystems can only be deducted if there is long-term monitoring of habits over longer time period that are sufficient for these changes to be evident.
Work on LTEO is being done in a number of developed and developing countries. India too has been doing it, but at present it is restricted to only one place in the country -a 50 hectare plot at Mudumalai which has been monitored for over the past 30 years by the IISc, Bangalore.
The new initiative will, however, now cover all the major biomass of the country from Western Himalayas to Western Ghats, Eastern Himalayas to Andaman & Nicobar Islands, central India to the Sunderbans and from J&K to Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The long-term scientific monitoring of the natural landscapes of the country , its water resources, grasslands, mammals, birds, fishes, insects and traditional human socio-ecological systems at representative sites will be carried out under a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional framework.
The focus will be to pick up signals and patterns of how changes in climate are affecting natural and closely associated human systems of agriculture and pastoralism.
India's LTEO programme will also enable its scientists to join international initiatives on the subject and provide empirical data on actual impact on various ecosystems.