Maharashtra govt wields bamboo in fight against climate change

MUMBAI: Climate change found a place for the first time in the state budget on Friday, when finance minister Ajit Pawar announced that bamboo will be planted on 10,000 hectares of private land across the state under Atal Bamboo Samriddhi Yojana. The scheme is being seen as a way to mitigate the effect of climate change.
Under the scheme, a farmer will be paid Rs 7 lakh per hectare over three years to undertake bamboo plantation.Bamboo will also be planted on waste land and the first project will be implemented in Nandurbar on 1.2 lakh acres. The Centre will provide 90% of the funds and the state the remaining 10% for private land. For tribal land, the scheme will be fully funded by the central govt.
The scheme’s announcement came just days after govt held a review of kharif crops, during which a presentation on the impact of climate change on human life and biodiversity was made by Pasha Patel, the executive chairman of the newly formed environment and sustainability task force under the chairmanship of the CM.
Patel relied on a report by World Resource Institute-IPCC to explain the Devastating impact of a 1.5°C to 3°C rise in temperature. He said a 1.5°C rise in temperature would destroy 14% of the state’s biodiversity, cause drought that would affect 15 crore people, increase forest fires by 40% and the number of hot days in a year to 45, trigger heat waves three times a year, raise the sea level by half a metre, and set off floods that would hit 24% of the population. He cautioned that an increase of 2°C would make things worse and a 3°C rise would mean annihilation.
To offset such effects of climate change, Patel made an impassioned plea to govt to carry out bamboo plantation on a large scale. “I told govt that if climate change effects are to be addressed, then 20% of the state’s geographical area must be under green cover. I suggested that bamboo be planted on a mass scale as it grows quickly and has multiple uses. Besides, the state govt can use the central govt scheme to carry out bamboo plantation,” he said.
Patel said thar govt has agreed to plant bamboo along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway and the Mumbai-Goa highway. In Mumbai, chief minister Eknath Shinde has already announced that BMC will implement a Rs 200-crore bamboo plantation programme.