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| India,
China defer agreement on Himalayan glaciers, tigers
TIMES OF INDIA Saibal
Dasgupta , 26th August 2009,
BEIJING: India and China have
agreed to defer signing an agreement for joint research on Himalayan
glaciers till October end, Jairam Ramesh, minister of state
(independent charge) for environment and forests, said here on the last
day of his three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday.
India is
worried about signs of faster melting of glaciers, which feeds major
rivers like the Brahmaputra, due to global warming. China is anxious
about the massive drought situation in the Tibetan region this year.
Ramesh
said a comprehensive accord will be drawn up after another round of
talks when a Chinese delegation of environment scientists and officials
visit New Delhi in October end.
It is not clear if the
postponement was caused by any differences between the two countries,
which also look at the issue from the security viewpoint. Discussion on
granting access to scientists to each other's areas in the Himalayas
has been going on for a long time and it is only now that the two sides
have come close to drafting an accord.
Ramesh also brought up
the issue of tiger farming in China, which local officials do not like
to discuss. China was rapped recently by the Geneva based Convention of
International Trade in Endangered Species for encouraging tiger farming
after strong lobby by India.
The two sides agreed to hold a
meeting of experts on issues relating to tiger and Tibetan antelope
protection in the first week of November. Any agreement on the wildlife
front will take place only after the November talks.
The
minister said China and India have agreed to set up a joint working
group of forestry experts to study carbon sequestration and determine
factors that result in the capture of carbon dioxide in green cover
areas.
New Delhi was keen to learn from Chinese how they manage
to raise four times more forest at four million hectares a year as
compared to India. The two countries also want to collaborate in making
forest surveys using satellites.
India and China also wants to
work together in research on pollution in major cities in the two
countries and management of chemical and hazardous wastes, Ramesh said.
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