The State now has a climate change laboratory to monitor the vagaries of nature. The lab, which was inaugurated by Forest Minister R. Shankar here on Tuesday, has been developed by the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI). The institute was designated as the State nodal agency for climate change in Karnataka by the Department of Science and Technology under National Mission for Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change.
The project, which began in 2016, aims to establish a Karnataka strategic knowledge centre for climate change. Setting up of the lab was one of the features of this project. The lab will provide technical support for research, training and capacity building in climate change programmes, according to a release.
For long term monitoring of climate change, permanent preservation plots have been established in Bannerghatta National Park, which will help observe and record the changes in species diversity, composition and growth pattern owing to climate change over a period of time, said the release.