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CLIMATE CHANGE: Indian Scientists Yet to Study Biodiversity Impacts

Keya Acharya

BANGALORE, May 22 2007 (IPS) - Scientists at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc) based in this southern Indian city say that field studies of climate change impacts in India are currently non-existent, with no attention being given to them.

This is despite the fact that the IISc has contributed actively to the assessments of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessments and published extensively on climate change research.

‘’There is a good beginning on the impact of climate change on flora, but a beginning has hardly been made on all the other fields,” says Prof. N.H. Ravindranath, associate faculty at IISc’s Centre for Ecological Studies(CES) and chairman, Centre for Sustainable Technologies.

Prof. Kartik Shankar of the CES, who has been studying the habits of Olive Ridley and Leatherback turtles on India’s eastern and southern coastline, feels climate change is a difficult area to study since its impacts show up only in the long term.

“Apart from a few areas in Orissa where violent storms in recent years have washed away nesting sites, it’s hard to distinguish what exactly can be attributed to climate change,” he told IPS.

CES chairman Raman Sukumar thinks the entire system of wildlife conservation in India will need an overhaul.

”We need to relook at the present-day network of Protected Areas, consider how future climate change is expected to affect different regions with faunal species and then plan accordingly,” he told IPS in an interview.

A study of climate change impacts on forest ecosystems in India ( Current Science, February 2006) by Ravindranath, Sukumar, N.V. Joshi of IISc and A. Saxena of the Forest Survey Institute shows a major shift in forest types by 2085.

The State of Forest Report 2003 says 16 major forest types, from alpine pastures to tropical savanna cover 67.8m ha or 20.64 percent of the country’s geographical area, with 1.56 percent very dense forests, 10.32 percent moderately dense forests and 8.76 percent open forests.

The projected changes in these forests are principally due to increased temperatures of 2 – 4 degrees C in the southern region and possibly exceeding 4 degrees C in the northern region. Rainfall days are set to decrease in general, but its intensity will increase, as per India’s National Communication 2004 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Nearly 68-77 percent of Indian forests are likely to undergo a sea change to another forest type by 2085.

“In other words, over half of the vegetation is likely to find itself less optimally adapted to its existing location, making it vulnerable to adverse climatic conditions and to biotic stresses,” states the ‘Current Science’ paper.

The actual negative impact may be even more because of a ‘domino effect’ on other species due to the inter-dependency of plant-animal-microbe communities.

Generally, there will be wetter forest regions in the northeast and drier forest regions in the northwest.

The IPCC special report on ‘Climate change and Biodiversity’ projects adverse impacts of climate change on other natural ecosystems too, such as coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands.

Scientist A.S. Unnikrishnan from India’s National Institute of Oceanography (NIOS) at Goa says there is likely to be an increase in storm surges and cyclones on India’s eastern coastline if CO2 levels increase.

India has 13 major wetland types occupying 715, 819 sq km and including estuaries, lagoons, marshes, coral reefs, salt pans and ponds.

The biodiversity of coral reefs includes sea grasses, corals, several invertebrate groups, fishes, amphibians, birds nesting on reefs, and mammals.

The reefs of the Andaman and Nicobar islands have the highest recorded diversity with 203 coral species, 120 algal species, and 70 sponges in addition to fishes, sea turtles, dugongs and dolphins.

The first signs of sea-level increase and consequent submergence of coastlands are already showing up in the 10,000-km stretch of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove wetland, in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in eastern India.

There are reports from this islet-region of a number of small islands disappearing underwater in recent years, causing their inhabitants to become destitute.

‘’Predicted climate variations and resultant sea level rise would flood existing tidal habitats of an ecolologically important, sensitive and productive nature. But climate change is a slow process and marine vegetation has great potential at keeping pace with such variations,” Tanaji Jagtap, senior scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography, at Goa.

Jagtap says that India’s coastline, already suffering from human pressures and biodiversity exploitation, needs strict implementation of India’s coastal zonal regulations.

But India still has the opportunity to stem the worst impacts of climate change, say the IISc scientists.

“First we need a better understanding through biological studies of areas such as fisheries, dryland agriculture and so on, and then initiate some pilot projects on adaptation to climate change,” says Ravindranath.

‘’Policy makers can make use of our scientific studies,” Unnikrisnan told IPS in response to queries.

“It is important for all government departments to first recognize that there is a potentially serious issue called climate change that has to be factored in during the planning process,” says Sukumar.

The IISc scientists have brought the attention of the Ministry of Environment and Forests to the issue, suggesting recommendations and further research.

The communiqué to the ministry emphasises the current lack of information on the impacts of climate change on forest biodiversity or biomass production particularly at regional and local levels.

‘’Given the significant dependence of local people and economies on forest biodiversity in India, there is a need to assess the possible impacts of climate change on biodiversity and develop adaptation measures at the local, regional and national level,” says the 2006 communiqué by Ravindranath, Sukumar and others.