IMPHAL, May 25: A one day district level consultative workshop for Manipur State Action Plan on Climate Change was held today at Tamenglong HQ organized by the Directorate of Environment, Government of Manipur in association with the All Zliangrong Students’ Union.
The workshop was participated by villagers of several villages of the district including from Dailong, Khunjao, Tamei and Noney.
The main purpose of the workshop was to garner support from the villagers in the fight against climate change and to invite suggestions from the general public on the issue.
In his key-note address Research Officer Directorate of Environment, department of Environment and Forest, GOM invited suggestions from the attending villagers which could be incorporated to the state action plan on Climate Change.
Further elaborating on the issue he took help of slideshows and talked about water scarcity and to endorse water harvesting.
Another main theme of the discussion was the Jhum cultivation.
He further invited suggestions from the participating villagers on the various ways to minimise jhumming cultivation and find a sustainable solution to climate change.
The villagers on their part expressed that they had no idea of any alternative to Jhum cultivation and sought the same from the government.
Further expressing that the production of Oranges has decreased dramatically over the years, the villagers who included students and others from various fields demanded a scientific solution to the problem from the government.
They also wanted to promote Slop Agricultural Land Cultivation, SALC and a ban on plastics and other synthetic items.
Other suggestions of the villagers include development of eco-parks and distribution of seeds and nursery items periodically.
They further suggested the government to first declare land ownership and then to develop land sanctuaries.
Other suggestions were presence of micro finance facilities with grants from the government and sustainable assistance from the state government.
Regular supplies of commodities from the FCS and closure of Nungba Oil Exploration were also demanded by the villagers.
The villagers further suggested promotion of health facilities, biological research centres and a monitoring cell to continuously check the government facilities in the district.