Develop strategies at local level to tackle disasters, experts say

CHENNAI: India’s vast resources in space technology such as INSAT and IRS satellites play a critical role in predicting natural disasters like droughts, flash floods, cyclones and snowstorms, said a speaker at an international conference in Chennai on Thursday.
Accurate forecast of disasters helped reduce their impact on human lives and property, said B Manickam, a research scholar from Bangalore University.
He was speaking at an international conference on “Agro Biodiversity and 20 Years of World Trade Organization” held at Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University.
With climactic shifts in the last century affecting rainfall patterns, it is agriculture that gets affected the most, posing threats to our food security in the coming decades, a paper presented by a team of professors from Bangalore University and Anna University said.
They highlighted the need for developing strategies at local level to tackle impending disasters that could affect agriculture and water management, through studying global climate models.
Another paper – Biodiversity Conservation and Coffee Culture – was based on a study of the extent of biodiversity conservation in the coffee estates in Kodagu, which grows more than 50% of total coffee production in Karnataka.
“Coffee growers in Kodagu are considered the conservators of biodiversity as most of the coffee plants are grown under the shade provided by lush green canopy of trees (both natural and planted) that also house a variety of insects, birds and animals.”
In the last 10 years, 50% of trees have disappeared in the coffee plantations due to growers cutting down trees for higher yield.
“The trees that got in the way of irrigation tools and machines were cut down. While coffee grown in the shade is of higher quality, trees have been cut down to make way for more plants and higher yield,” said research scholar Beena SN.