KTK seeks Centre's help to study climate change in W Ghats

NEW DELHI: Worried over the potential negative impact of global warming on Western Ghats, Karnataka is seeking the Centre's help to set up a research centre to record the process of climate change at the biodiversity hot spot.

"Climate change poses a serious threat to the pristine wealth of Western Ghats in the state. Now it is time to set up a high-tech sophisticated centre to record the process of global warming there," a senior state official said.

She said funds and technical help has been sought from from the Union government. The proposed centre would help improve the reliability of climate projections at a regional level and use dynamic vegetation models as and when required.

Western Ghats Mountains is one of the 34 global biodiversity hot spots in the world, being the habitat of wide variety of flora and fauna.

The move to set up a centre in the region is part of the State Government's aim to establish a "climate change task force" similar to the one in Himachal Pradesh.

The state government is also now preparing an action plan to adapt to possible socio-economic and environmental fallouts in the state where 80 per cent of agriculture is rain-fed.

A recent study by climate experts from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has claimed that "not only will climate change endanger many species of the Western Ghats, but can also cause forest boundaries of Karnataka to shift by 40 per cent by 2085."