Need well-structured policies, community participation to address climate change: President Murmu

New Delhi: A well-structured framework of policies and actions, involving governments, legal experts and affected communities, is essential to effectively address the complex challenge of climate change, President Droupadi Murmu said on Sunday.

Addressing the valedictory session of the international conference on 'The Future of Environment and Climate Dynamics' here, President Murmu said climate change was having serious repercussions on food security, health, and livelihoods.

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She said the framework must ensure the active participation of communities most affected by climate change, with special sensitivity towards the needs of rural and forest-dwelling communities, small farmers, women, and other vulnerable sections.

"Climate change creates imbalances across multiple levels of human existence. Issues such as biodiversity loss, water stress and land degradation are deeply intertwined with it. It is also having serious repercussions on food security, health, and livelihoods," President Murmu said at the event organised by the National Green Tribunal.

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She underlined that traditional knowledge systems, along with the practices and lived experiences of local communities, play a vital role in enhancing climate adaptation capacity.

"We must strengthen climate resilience through people-centric and community-based adaptation approaches rooted in traditional knowledge," she said.

She said sustainable afforestation can also play a significant role in enhancing climate resilience, and afforestation efforts that nurture biodiversity and are aligned with local conditions can be instrumental in this regard.

"The true objective of sustainable afforestation is not merely planting trees, but rather restoring healthy and self-sustaining ecosystems," she said.

Citing an example from her childhood, President Murmu recalled how her father would bring dry wood from a nearby forest for cooking at home and respectfully bow his head and seek forgiveness before cutting it.

She said she once asked him why he prayed before cutting the wood, and he told her that the wood was once part of a tree that gave fruits, flowers, air and water. The logs have grown older and dried, but continue to help them, President Murmu said, receiving a round of applause from the audience.

She recalled how her father would also bow down before the Earth before tilling the field.

"I used to ask, 'Why do you pray before tilling the field?' He would say the Earth is our mother. What all it bears, whatever products we grow, we are able to do it because of the Earth," she said, adding that "we believe in live and let live."

President Murmu said this sense of humility was deeply ingrained in Indian culture and reflected an understanding of the fundamental relationship between humanity and nature.

She also called for stopping the business of selling tree leaves and logs, saying plants give life to people.

"If you keep plucking leaves annually, then how would a plant become a tree? How would they live?" she said, adding that "if people change themselves then the Earth will too change itself accordingly".

The president said developing countries should chart a path that enhances resilience while maintaining the pace of development.

"Commitments to responsible climate action must align with the country's development needs and economic aspirations. They must also be technically feasible," she added.