India launched I-LTEO programme to monitor 8 different biomes

India on 7 December 2015 launched the Indian Long Term Ecological Observatories (I-LTEO) programme to scientifically monitor eight different biomes (natural landscapes) across the country. The initiative was launched on the sidelines of the Conference of Parties-21 (COP-21) of UNFCCC in Paris.

The programme aims to identify and monitor targeted socio-ecological challenges and help build capacity within India. The studies under the programme will indicate the need for imminent adaptation measures.

Highlights of the LTEO Programme

• Under this programme, students and young scientists will also be trained through sustained long-term support for research in the area of climate change.
• The initiative will also help the country to have its own scientific data-base in this key area without depending on studies done abroad.

• The new initiative will cover all the major biomass of the country from Western Himalayas to Western Ghats, Eastern Himalayas to Andaman & Nicobar Islands, central India to the Sunderbans and from Jammu & Kashmir to Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• Moreover, long term scientific monitoring of the natural landscapes, water resources, grasslands, mammals, birds, fishes and insects will also be carried out.
• The focus would be to pick up signals and patterns of how changes in climate are affecting natural and closely associated human systems of agriculture and pastoralism.
• It will also enable its scientists to join international initiatives on the subject and provide empirical data on actual impacts on various eco-systems.

The work on LTEO Programme is being done in a number of developed and developing countries. India too was doing it but was restricted to only one place in the country- a 50 hectare plot at Mudumalai which has been monitored for over the past 30 years by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

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