JAMMU: Two-Days National Conference on Sustainable Environment: Water-Health-Agriculture-
In the afternoon session of day 1, Prof Dr. Sanjay Khajuria, SKAUST highlighted the role of agroforestry in climate change and mitigation. He connected the audience in dogri language which further rejoiced them. The talk was full of practical mitigation strategies and land management plans where he also shared the successful agroforestry case studies of famers in different areas of UT. Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki, Prof. IIT Bombay, founder of Energy Swaraj Foundation, joined the proceedings of the conference as a special guest.
His thought provoking speech and his pledge of 11 year solar yatra was very appealing. He talked about reality checks on carbon emissions and climate change. His concepts of nature degradation and insightful perspectives on management of energy resources urged everyone to reduce their Carbon emissions to mitigate climate change.
He is recognised as solar Gandhi of India and appointed as Ambassador of govt. of India to promote solar energy. With new perspectives on management of energy resources, he stressed upon the need to understand climate clock and implement drastic and immediate actions. He suggested to switch to solar energy by 100% and gave the concept of 'astitva ke niyam' of limiting consumption and localising production. The proceedings ended up with final talk of Dr Prashant who talked about water security issues. He elaborated the concepts of CO2 emissions, global warming and climate change.
Day two of the conference began with technical session for oral presentations by scholars from different institutions who presented their research work. Online technical sessions for oral presentations were also conducted where researchers joined to share their respective contemporary studies. Oral presentations based on themes such as climate and Himalayan cryosphere, atmospheric aerosols and metal toxicity and waste management were highlights of the technical sessions.
Prof B.S. Bali in his plenary talk focused on earthquakes that has happened in the past specifically in the Kashmir valley and explained the concepts on paleo-seismology. He addressed the queries from the audiences and very responsibly cleared the rumours of major earthquake expected in Jammu Kashmir in near future. Dr. Rakesh Kumar Atri, Assistant Prof, University of Jammu delivered his talk on Health Risks and Spatial Distribution of Heavy Metals in Road Deposited sediments from Jammu Urban area. Mr. Pankaj Chandan took the audience through a journey into Himalayas and its water bodies.
His presentation was a visual treat and very informative. He also presented a series of beautiful pictures showing wildlife of Himalaya’s ranges in Ladakh. Prof. M.S. Bhatti (FIE, FNESA) from GNDU shared the important aspects of water sampling techniques in his plenary talk. Dr. Rajbir Bhatti, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, GNDU, delivered her invited talk on Health Impact and Application of Animal Models in Ambient Air Pollution Studies.The Technical sessions were followed by the poster display on the themes namely health, climate and agriculture and evaluation of all sessions were done by experts. A rapid fire session with PhD students was conducted.
The valedictory function commenced with welcome address by Prof. Sunil Dhar (Head, EVS) and Prof. B. S. Bhau (Dean, School of Life Sciences). Dr. Dinesh Kumar (Organizing Secretary) shared the highlights of the conference. Dr. C.M. Seth (IFS), Former chairman, JKPCB appreciated the efforts of organizing team and mentioned the importance of likewise events in the field of pollution control and sustainable development. The guest of honor, Mr. S. Rakesh Kumar (IFS), Director, Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing, Govt. of India also addressed the audience. The awards for best oral and poster presentations were announced by Dr. Anita Singh (Organizing Secretary). Presidential remarks were delivered by Prof. Sanjeev Jain (Hon’ble Vice Chancellor). The conference SEWHACN 2022 concluded with formal vote of thanks by Dr. Shweta Yadav.