‘Haritha Haram should become state’s norm’

Dr Anjal Prakash, research director and adjunct associate professor, Bharti Institute of Public Policy at Indian School of Business, says there is an urgent need to turn environmental planning into action in order to reduce detrimental effects of climate change. As the author of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on cities, settlements and essential infrastructure, he tells Sribala Vadlapatla extreme droughts and heatwaves are likely to become common and severe.Excerpts from the interview.
What are the big worries for Hyderabad based on the IPCC report?
Scientists forecast warmer conditions for semi-arid locations across the world and Hyderabad has a similar climate. It means that summers would be hotter and monsoons will be wetter. The IPCC report states that urban flooding or drought will be the result of climate changes but the location and frequency of these events will be determined by expected changes in regional atmospheric circulation like monsoons and mid-latitude storm tracks.
Explain how the city’s rainfall pattern is changing
In July this year, Hyderabad received almost 31% of the total rainfall for the month with some areas receiving 22 cm of rain in a single day. The number of rainy days will decrease, resulting in more rainfall in a shorter period of time and long periods of non-rainy days throughout the monsoon. Cities are drivers of climate change and recipients of catastrophic events if their infrastructure is not designed to cope with them.
What consequences are expected for Telangana based on the IPCC report?
A large portion of Telangana is in dry or semi-arid agro-ecological zones, which will be severely impacted by global warming. As per the IPCC report, the globe will be warmer by 1.5 degrees in the next 10-20 years. Each degree of warming will have a significant impact on the state.
What should Telangana do to lessen the effects of climate change?
Programmes like Haritha Haram should become the state’s norm. Aforestation is one of the key areas that have both adaptation and mitigation benefits. Telangana has tanks and ponds, intentionally created on a landscape to arrest water even with little rainfall. Unique laws should be formulated and implemented strictly to protect their boundaries. Lakes are also regulators of the local climate. The second step is to make cities and communities more climate-resilient. This means that infrastructure must be re-evaluated in order to incorporate the latest research and make the required improvements to adapt. Environmental planning and urban planning should go together.