The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Call for more research on climate change

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call for more research on climate change

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: More research on climate change and insects should be taken up, eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Prof. M.S. Mani birth centenary symposium on ‘Facets of Cecidology: intricacies of insect-plant interactions,’ he said the Entomology Academy of India should prepare papers on policy issues of climate change and insects.

Stressing the need for protecting bio-shields such as mangrove forests, Dr. Swaminathan said that in Bangladesh casualties were not reported during the recent cyclone wherever mangrove forests were found. In India too, people living along the coast had realised the importance of mangroves after the tsunami struck three years ago.

What was needed was improvement of productivity in perpetuity without affecting the ecological balance, he said.

Exotic plants introduced 30 years ago had resulted in the disappearance of large portions of natural forests, C.K. Sreedharan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu, said. Eucalyptus was one such species, which was brought to India from Australia. For planting this species, many natural forest areas were cleared. But, the plant also brought in some of the alien insects, which created problems for the endemic flora. T.N. Ananthakrishnan, patron, Entomology Academy of India, highlighted the recent trends in Cecidological studies.

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