New Delhi: The government has set up three Centres of Excellence (CoE) which would lead the climate change research in the Himalayan region. The three centres set up at University of Kashmir, Sikkim University and Tezpur University were inaugurated on December 4 by Department of Science & Technology (DST) Secretary Ashutosh Sharma through Video Conferencing.
Sharma urged these centres, set up under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE), to lead the climate change research in the Himalayan region which is both a contributor to climate change and a regulator of it.
He stressed that the centres should be the primary movers of producing knowledge and also using that knowledge with the help of appropriate stakeholders and also be a source of motivation for Himalayan universities to come forward to take up research challenges.
“Out of the 8 national missions which are part of the National Action Plan on Climate Change, NMSHE is the only site-specific mission that aims to take suitable measures for safeguarding the Indian Himalayan Region,” Sharma said.
He informed that the DST has set up climate change cells in 12 out of the 13 states and Union Territories in the Himalayan region and will soon have 13th cell at Ladakh.
Prof. S.P. Singh, Chairman, Expert Committee of DST on Climate Change said the Himalayan region offers vast avenues for research on its glaciers, forests and alpine meadows etc. The findings can be of global interest, he said.
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