As a first effort towards turning the Nilgiris into a “carbon-neutral district,” Additional Chief Secretary to the State government Supriya Sahu said that a comprehensive plan would be formulated in the next three months.
Speaking at the ‘Carbon Neutral Nilgiris’ event held in Udhagamandalam on Thursday, Ms. Sahu said that the Nilgiris was the “water-tower” of the State where four rivers originate from the Shola forests and grasslands. “It also serves as a junction for the States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” and working towards making the district carbon-neutral would benefit wildlife and local communities, said Ms. Sahu.
“What we mean when we say carbon-neutral is nothing but the balance between carbon emissions that are created through our activities and the amount that is absorbed [through forests greening initiatives]”, said Ms. Sahu.
Stating that ensuring carbon-neutrality would also produce new jobs and employment opportunities in the district, Ms. Sahu said that the government was focused on ensuring that the initiative will keep “biodiversity, wildlife and people at the core of it and that is what we’re trying to do,” she said.
The Additional Chief Secretary said that the government was keen on ensuring that the local bodies are included in the initiative to make the Nilgiris carbon-neutral. Ms. Sahu said that the Nilgiris had a good chance to be declared as the first carbon-neutral district in the country.
She said that in 2021-2022, under the Tamil Nadu Green Mission, more than three crore saplings were planted across the State, with an 80% survival rate. She said that the initiative was creating “green jobs” across the State, with the next target being setting up more than 1,000 nurseries across the State to plant seven crore saplings.
She said that the government was also working on stopping the degradation of existing forests and working towards restoring forests, which she said will mitigate human-animal conflicts.
She said that the government also planned to add 60 sq km more of mangrove forests across 14 districts in Tamil Nadu, which will translate to a total of 100 sq km of mangrove forests once completed.
Following a discussion with the State governing council members and experts at the discussion an integrated carbon-neutral plan would be formulated for the decarbonisation pathways for the energy, transportation and other sectors.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Ms. Sahu said that among the recommendations to turn the Nilgiris carbon-neutral was to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce emissions from tourist vehicles in the district, increase green cover and to enforce stricter bans on the use of plastic bags.
