climate change project for sikkim & NE

Germany to fund climate change project in NE


16 Jun 2009, 2134 hrs IST,

GUWAHATI: German development bank KfW will fund a Rs 500-crore joint venture project on climate change in Assam. The Indo-German project will also
roll out of Meghalaya, Sikkim and Nagaland.

The project will track drastic climatic changes in the region and implement measures to rationally tackle them to minimise the degrading effects.

Jens Mackensen, vice-president and divisional chief of natural resources management Asia of the bank and Nand Kishore Agarwal, project manger of KFW-India held discussions with Assam forest minister Rockybul Hussain and other officers on Monday on issues related to the project.

Chief conservator of forests (territorial), Assam, RP Agarwal told ET: "Total outlay for the project is around Rs 500 crore, out of which Rs 400 crore will come from KfW and the rest will come from the Assam government and the Centre."
He added that the German government, under Indo-German bilateral co-operation, will fund the project.

"Under the project, forest, wildlife, agriculture & horticulture, watershed & disaster management are the four sectors identified for climate change adaptation. The project design is expected to be finalised during August-September 2009. Once implemented, the project will have a positive impact on the identified sectors and help adaptation measures for climate