(a) the present status of the National Mission for sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem;
(b) whether any monitoring body has been constituted to look after the mission and if so, the details thereof;
(c) the details of funds sanctioned for the said Mission during the 12th Five Year Plan period;
(d) the details of the funds utilised/expenditure incurred so far thereon; and
(e) the extent to which the health status of the Himalayan Ecosystem has been benefited from the said Mission so far?
MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTER OF EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)
(a) The National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem has been approved by the Government during February 2014. The mission has a number of deliverables which are at present at different stages of initiation and implementation. Some of the important deliverables that have been initiated include - 6 Thematic Task Forces, Climate Change Cells in 7 out of 12 Himalayan States, an Inter-University Consortium on Himalayan Cryosphere participated by four universities and capacity building programme in glaciology & related areas.
(b) A Mission Steering Committee has been set up with Secretary, Department of Science and Technology as Chairman, and five other Secretaries to Govt. of India and a few domain experts as members to oversee the implementation of the mission.
(c) & (d): The mission has been approved at total budget outlay of Rs. 550 Crores for implementation in the 12th Five year plan period. Programmes worth Rs 66.19 Cr have been sanctioned and an amount of Rs. 17.84 Cr has been released so far.
(e) In order to assess the health status of Himalayan ecosystem, six thematic Task Forces anchored around six leading institutions have been approved. These include (i) `Forest Resources and Plant Diversity` by G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development, Almora; (ii) `Fauna and Wild Life Habitats` by Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun; (iii) `Natural and Geo- logical Wealth` by Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun; (iv) `Water, Ice, Snow Resources including Glaciers` by National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee; (v) `Traditional Knowledge System` by Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and (vi) `Himalayan Agriculture` by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. These Task Forces have been approved recently for a period of five years and are in the process of ini- tiating these studies. The outcome from these studies are expected to help assessing the health status of the Himalayan ecosystem.