Govt concedes rise in extreme weather conditions

By Staff
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New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) The Government today conceded that there had been an increase in extreme weather conditions like cyclones, rain fall and drought due to global warming in the last 15 years but no specific change had been noticed excepting events like heavy rains in Mumbai 2005 and in Rajasthan in 2006.

Answering Mr J P Aggarwal in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Sibal said the mean temperature in the country during the last 100 years had increased by 0.5 degree celsius and there was no appreciable change in the annual rainfall averaged over the country. Indian scientists in India Meteorological Deparment and Institute of Tropical Meteorology had studied long term term trends of temperature and rainfall over different parts of the country and changes in extreme weather events like heat and cold waves and heavy precipitation and trend in tropical cyclone activity over north Indian ocean.

He said the Inter-governmantal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report based on physical science basis had provided continental level finding. The climate change was a global problem and the principal responsibility lay with the developed countries and not developing countries like India.

On the steps taken by the Government to slow the climate change, the minister said although India did not have any Green House Gases abatement commitments under Kyoto Protocol it did take a range of programmes to mitigate climate change. The steps included improving energy efficiency, conservation, setting up of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, power sector reforms, promoting hydro and renewable energy, promoting nuclear energy and promoting clean coal technology and conservation of forests and reduction of gas flaring.

To another question, Mr Sibal said Geological Survey of India has completed inventories regarding the 1150 landslides over the north-eastern states, north west Himalayas, Western ghats and Nilgiri Hills and mapping the landslide hazard zones in different scales.

Mr Sibal said the main purpose of this study was to guide the planners regarding the land use pattern. some of the recurring types of landslides studies recently were Sonapur slide on Shillong-Silchar National Highway, Meghalaoya 9th mile side on NH31A, Darjeeling W Bengal, devastating Varunavrat slide, Uttarkashi, Survee slide, Mussouri, Uttarakhand, Raigarh district in Maharashtra and Hospital slide Coonur, Tamil Nadu.

The risk reduction due to avalanches was attempted through the methods of avalanche awareness, avalanche forecasting and avalanche control.

Answering a question about the melting glaciers in Himalayas, he said regular monitoring of several glaciers during the last 100 years from Shyok in west to change Khanpur in east had revealed that majority of glaciers were passing through a phase of recession as the mean temperature over the country had increased by 0.5 degree celsius. The preliminary studies reveal a recession rate to be around 10 to 15 metres a year for some glaciers.

UNI

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