Mitali Soni
“Climate change is real. It is happening
right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need
to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.”
Leonardo Di Caprio, Actor &
Environmentalist
Climate change is the greatest global
challenge, which through a multitude of impacts poses a risk to our ecology,
economy and society. Studies show that changes in the climate of Rajasthan are
over and above the natural climate variability prevailing in the region.
Experts say that Rajasthan falls in areas of greatest climate sensitivity,
maximum vulnerability and lowest adaptive capacity. Rajasthan is the largest state in India covering an area of 34.22
million hectares (10.5 percent of the country’s geographical area), but sharing
only 1.16 percent of its water resources. It is the driest state with nearly 70
percent (2/3rd) of the area classified as arid and semi-arid region that makes the land unfit for cultivation.
Climate change challenges being faced by state
Climate change is a global challenge with
diverse implications at the national and subnational levels, through impacts on
various sectors such as agriculture, environment and human health. It has made
water scarcity problem worse, as it has the potential to disrupt livelihoods
and well-being of farmers through impacting weather patterns. According to the
Ground Water Year Book 2020-2021 Rajasthan, Comparison of water level for
January 2021 with the mean of January 2011-20 infer that water levels in 60.76%
stations shows decline. Over exploitation and excess use of groundwater has led
to substantial decline in water levels which may ultimately result in drying up
of aquifers in many areas of state. For drinking and irrigation purpose, 90% of
state’s population rely upon groundwater.
Climate Change and Environment in state budget 2022
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot
presented the state budget for the financial year 2022-23 touched almost every
area or sector (Health, Agriculture, social security, infrastructure, tourisms,
etc.). In the Budget speech, announcement regarding various schemes related to
these sectors were made.
Some of the announcements made in the budget
2022-23, from the perspective of environment protection and improving the climate
change situations include proposal of plantation to be done in more than 50000
hectares of forest area in the coming year to increase the forest cover and
increase greenery in the state. In order to ensure proper disposal of e-waste,
it is proposed to set up a Jaipur-waste recycling park along with bringing in
‘e-waste disposal policy’. There is an exemption of 50% in motor vehicle tax to
promote new vehicles running on CNG for pollution control. Now this exemption will
also be admissible on CNG Kit Retrofitment vehicles. The step has been taken to
promote the use of cleaner fuel and CNG is an environment friendly fuel and
emits less carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter and smoke, as
compared to petrol and diesel engines.
Irrigation facility will be developed for the farmers of tribal
area through solar energy based community water-lifting irrigation scheme
through 50 lift irrigation schemes. Switching to solar energy eases reliance on
fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil. This move will have direct
influence on the reduction of emission of harmful gases to the atmosphere. With
a view to reduce the cost of energy generation and carbon emissions, expansion
of Chhabra Thermal Power Station based on ultra-super critical technology and
lignite coal, which in turn produces less heat and less amount of
carbon-di-oxide and Sulphur-di-oxide.
Some of the announcements made about the agriculture are also
environment friendly and can change the climate change situations include proposal of Rs 2700 crores under Rajasthan Micro Irrigation Mission, which can boost yields while lowering
water, fertilizer, and labour costs. The approach lowers water loss by
conveyance, run-off, deep percolation, and evaporation by providing water
directly to the root zone. Ground
Water Conservation and Management Authority will be formed for the proper use of ground water
in the state. Under the
Rajasthan Organic Farming Mission, Rs. 600 crores has been proposed with the
perception to benefit 4 lacs farmers in 3 years. To promote the production and
sale of organic products, purchase of organic products and sale of these
products at grocery stores like Confed and Co-operative consumer stores,
departmental stores, D-mart stores etc. shall be provided. I appreciate
government for promoting organic farming as this will avoid pesticides and
mitigate climate change by reducing GHG gas emissions and stores carbon in
soil.
Special
Emphasis on Health Sector
As India enters the third year in its fight
against the global pandemic, special focus on health sector is clearly visible
in budget speech. In 2022-23, there is about 23.6% increase in health sector vudget compared to the
budget estimate of year 2021-22. As mentioned above, various announcements
related to environment were made which are leading towards the reduction of
Greenhouse Gas emissions will be beneficial in improvement of respiratory,
cardiovascular and various chronic diseases contributing to well-being. As
discussed the water availability concerns in the beginning of this article, Under
Jal Jivan Mision,24 new missions are going to be started through which
12,24,000 families will get Potable Drinking water and proposal of announcement
regarding 36 new projects were done.
Conclusion
The state budget 2022-23 is an ambitious budget which has covered almost each and
every area but did not directly discuss climate change but various announcements
were done. With respect to environment, as mentioned above in the Rajasthan
budget 2019-20, it was announced to draft a new policy on Climate Change but it
has not come yet.
A question was raised in Rajasthan
Legislative Assembly on 15/02/2022 with reference to the climate change policy and the establishment
of the Directorate of Environment and Climate Change in the State. The following answer was given by the state government:
“The announcement of bringing climate
change policy by the state government was made in the budget 2019-20. The
draft of climate change policy has been prepared with the help of IIT Bombay, which
will be finalized soon.” (Quoted from Rajasthan Assembly website)
Earlier also the government had prepared a
State action plan on climate Change. However, there is no information on its
implementation or outcome. It is appreciable that state government is taking initiatives such as organic farming, promoting CNG vehicles which are pro environment and beneficial for human health too. Under Jal Jeevan Mission, the government has again emphasized providing tapped drinking water to every rural household but as records shows that groundwater level is decreasing at a
rapid pace, therefore it is the matter of concern that by how the government
will ensure sustainability in drinking water prgrammes. The government, therefore, must take proactive measures to check the environmental degradations and make the development climate resilient.
Mitali is a public policy graduate and an independent consultant.
