Effective watershed practices needed: S Panneerselvam

OOTY: Experts called for effective watershed management to tackle the issues pertaining to climate change at the inauguration of 12 day national level training programme on Advances in Integrated Watershed Management for Rural Livelihood being organized by the Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre(IISWC-RC) here.

Dr S. Panneerselvam, director, water technology centre at  Tamil Nadu Agricultural University at Coimbatore, who inaugurated the programme in his addressed  expressed concern about the abrupt change in the climate due to human activities.  He said that that till now about 1.2 degrees centigrade temperature is increased globally that reduced the average annual rainfall.

The reduced rain and rainy days has increased the intensity of rain fall resulting in a loss of top fertile soil, water and nutrients. Due to the climate change in India, this year a new phenomenon had happened, that is, two cyclones ran parallel at one point of time.  This type of new phenomenon would generally end up in irregularity in rainfall patterns and pose threat to farm productivity, he said.

Stating that climate change is a crisis across the globe, Dr. Pannerselvam pointed that  India is categorised as a water stress country due to poor planning and management of rainwater. “To maintain the productivity we have to target for the proper management of our natural resources. The citizens of our country should utilize the soil and water resources rationally like how honey bee takes honey from flower without damaging to it” he noted.

Dr K. Kannan, Head of IISWC-RC here called for developing innovative technologies to manage water and soil conservation in the backdrop of climate change.   Dr P. Raja, principal scientist and course director said the training programme was designed for officers from central and state government involved in natural resource management.