Little done by climate change dept

Thiruvananthapuram: The climate change has brought in several disasters to the state, but the department of climate change under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has contributed little to changing the scenario. Floods and landslides have become regular occurrences and experts feel that the  government should come up with a State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC).

The 2018 and 2019 monsoons  defied normal rainfall pattern.  The state received rainfall in one day which should have been spread over a month.  A major disaster caused by climate change and environment degradation was worsened by the  absence of disaster preparedness.  The state had experienced a cold wave  early this year after the floods,  which was linked to global warming. India released its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) to adapt to climate change in 2008. A leading environmentalist told DC that when almost all the states had come up with SAPCC, Kerala was yet to make any progress on it.

“During former chief secretary S. M. Vijaya-nand’s tenure (2016 – 2017), a sub-committee was convened which approved the proposals on climate change. Four to five sittings were held and  a climate change cell and  climate change focal team members were formed. But the directorate of environment and climate change   has not been pro-active,”  he  said.

Additional Chief Secr-etary (Environment) V.S. Senthil,   Additional Chief Secretary (Forests and Wildlife) P. Mara Pandian and former director Padma Mahanti had evinced keen interest in the  SAPCC.  The state government’s Institute for Climate Change Stu-dies based in Kottayam was entrusted to revise the climate change activities in 2016 which were submitted to the government.   Veena Madhavan,  current director of environment and climate change,  told DC that the department was planning to revise  SAPCC by October.

“Currently, data collection is going on by  all   departments concerned,”  said Veena Madhavan.