Bhubaneswar, May 21: Orissa today launched a Rs 17,000-crore climate change action plan, thus becoming the first state in the country to make an organised attempt at combating phenomenon such as coastal erosion and massive denudation of forests.

“We made special efforts to get the plan ready as the impact of climate change in the state has been quite visible. We are visited by floods and cyclones almost every year,” said environment director, Bhagirathi Behera, who will head the state climate change action plan cell.

The plan that got chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s nod on Thursday discusses strategies to buck the impact of climate change in 11 key sectors including coastal management, agriculture, health, energy, fisheries and animal husbandry. Initially meant for implementation over a period of five years, it would be financed by the state’s internal resources as well as funds made available by international agencies.

“The plan has both short term and medium and long term prescriptions for climate-born problems being encountered by the state. We are also going to involve NGOs and civil society members in the implementation process,” said Behera.

On the coastal management front the plan talks about conducting micro-level vulnerability assessment, studying the phenomenon of rampant coastal erosion and constructing multipurpose cyclone shelters.

Emphasis has also been laid on improving flash flood management besides studying the impact of global warming on the biodiversity of coastal ecosystem.

Since the state’s vast farming community has also been reeling under the impact of climate change, the plan focuses on people-centric integrated watershed development in rain-fed areas, improving monitoring and surveillance techniques, developing sustainable soil, water and crop management practices and conducting climate-linked research studies. Similarly, in the energy sector the priority would be generation of cleaner power by reducing emission and making effective use of fly ash and harnessing the biomass potential of the state.

With Orissa’s green cover vanishing at an alarming rate, the five year project backed by expert studies would concentrate on increasing the forest cover while protecting the existing forest stock to act as carbon sink.

While effective forest management strategies would be worked out, steps would be taken to monitor carbon stock and biodiversity at regular intervals.

Behera said some of the line departments involved in the implementation process had started working in the right direction long ago when experts were putting the plan together.

“For example, some of these had undertaken plantation projects that is integral to combating the threat of climate change. Plantation is a long term goal, which will continue even after five years,” Behera said.

Yet another key area for the climate change planners is industry where the focus would be on conducting heat-island studies in industrial clusters such as Talcher and Jharsuguda, increasing water use efficiency and setting emission standards for thermal power plants.