Guwahati, Jul 20 (PTI) The first batch of 47 post-graduate students in Assam has been selected for the Chief Minister's Climate Resilient Fellowship Programme to study and survey how communities at the village level prepare to deal with the impact of climate change and adapt to it at the grassroots, an official said on Thursday. The three-month fellowship programme will provide these students with an opportunity to work with the village communities in the Kohora basin of Karbi Anglong, Science, Technology and Climate Change Department secretary Laya Madduri said.
''Climate change phenomenon now determines policy decisions of the governments across the globe. It is always better to have an adaptation mechanism in place to deal with the severe impacts when it (climate change) strikes us," she said.
The government is eagerly waiting for the outcome of the village/community level research projects to be carried out by the first batch of fellows to get a fair idea about how communities adapt to climate change in their areas, she said.
Madduri urged the researchers to work hard on the projects so that they can become the ‘agents of change’ in respect of climate change adaptation at the grassroots level.
''Their findings will be a treasure trove for the government and the community to work out a comprehensive state-level climate change adaptation plan at a later date," the official said.
A three-day orientation workshop of the researchers was held recently at a community centre in Chandrasing Rongpi village, which was coordinated by the Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) in collaboration with Aaranyak, a biodiversity conservation organisation.