Climate changes pose a serious impact and threat to the places, livelihoods and species. While around the world climate change and its impact is taken cautiously but Jammu and Kashmir seems to be least concerned about it.
Though the State Action for Climate Change (SAPCC) plan was passed in 2014, but the J&K administration has failed to implement it till now. But officials claimed that existing plan is faulty and headquarters have requested them to develop a new plan.
Despite of being located at mountain regions the government should have been extra careful but the plan is just on papers and nothing is implemented in real. Plan consists of 11 missions such as agriculture, tourism, energy and sustainable ecosystems that have been launched but nothing progressive has been achieved.
Shakeel Ramshoo, a top scientist told Excelsior that plan was initiated but nothing is actually done and one must take proper actions at local level to address the issue.
Country’s first national action plan on climate changes was initiated in 2008 by union government and every state was to give its own action plan for the same. J&K Kashmir developed a State Climate Change Action Plan and submitted it to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and in August 2015, the Union Government launched the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC) to support the program, but the Jammu and Kashmir has failed to deliver.
Official informed that plan failed due to lack of vulnerability and regional climate models and had many flaws. Neelu Gera, Director of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing in J&K said that they are working on new action plan because the previous one was flawed.
