Dimapur, Nov 28 (MExN): The Chairman, Temsuwati Ao, IFS today released the “State of Environment Report Nagaland 2005” at the Nagaland Pollution Control Board Office at Signal Point, Dimapur. The Report is available both in hard and soft copy and can also be viewed in the Nagaland Pollution Control Board’s website http:\\www. npcbngl.nic.in.
The Chairman in his message stated that “The Rio Earth Summit made it mandatory for all signatory nations to prepare a status document on environment called ‘State of Environment’. Accordingly, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India has launched a scheme under 10th Five Year Plan to bring out State of Environment (SoE) Reports for all States and Union Territories on a regular basis.
The Nagaland Pollution Control Board; the State Host Institute (SHI) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi as the National Host Institute (NHI) the SoE Report for Nagaland”.
The Chairman also stated “that our environment air, water, land, bio-diversity and eco-system is continually being encroached upon and there is an urgent need to maintain the symbiotic relation with nature to protect our heritage and traditions that are under threat”, while adding that to minimize the impacts and ensure sustainability, there is an utmost urgency to integrate the environmental concerns with the economic, social and developmental concerns.
The State of Environmental Report Nagaland – 2005 is an attempt to provide to the best possible extent the present environmental scenario and trends of environmental pressures. The State of Environment Report addresses the different issues such as Natural Resource Management, Biodiversity, Human Dimensions, Land Degradation, Air Pollution, Water pollution and Solid Waste Management prevailing in the State.
The objective of the present State of Environment Report is to identify and prioritize environmental issues and to correlate with the potential threats arising due to environmental degradation. Recommendations have also been provided so as to serve as a tool for policy makers to re-organize their strategies so that environmental priorities can be set and necessary policy and mitigation measures can be developed and implemented for the protection and conservation of our environment.
The Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio in his message stated that the greatest challenge to the existing of Earth as a living planet arises from our own environment. Mindless decimation of environment for improving our living standards has started displaying its perilous consequences.
“Man and his indispensable coexisting with nature” has become the 21st century 11th commandment. It is in this context that the Nagaland Pollution Control Board, in collaboration with the Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, is bringing out this Status Report on the State of Environment in Nagaland to provide for a systematic Action Plan for preservation, sustenance and promotion of Nature in Nagaland”, stated the Chief Minister. He further mentioned that the report should not be confined to the cupboards of a few ministers, bureaucrats and intellectuals but must be converted into a daily observable routine for every man in the street for his instinctive contribution towards the preservation of ecology in Nagaland.
Minister for Forest, Information & Public Relations, Kheto in his message stated that “The State of Environment Report aims to provide the people of the State with the integrated information about the State in respect to development and environment in Nagaland. The importance of conserving our environment for posterity is immense importance because of our very survival depends on it and hoped the recommendations of the report are considered while developing our State by the different stake holders”.
