KOLKATA: The Indian Meteorological Department has finally woken up to the need for collecting more weather data from central Himalayas spanning Darjeeling, parts of Jalpaiguri and Sikkim.
Currently, the Himalayas is the most data-barren region in the world. This has hampered climatologists from studying the effects of global warming and making climate change predictions.
"The Arctic is the most data-rich region in the world. Hence, it has also been studied in detail. Scientists predict that at the rate of current glacial melt, the Arctic region will be ice-free by the turn of the century. But there is hardly any report on the Himalayan ice and glacial melt due to paucity of data," says Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change author Edvin Aldrin.
Regional Meteorological Centre and Area Cyclone Warning Centre director G C Debnath said data shortage in the central Himalayas was due to absence of meteorological equipment in the region. "For most of the subcontinent, the Indian Met department has plenty of scientific data spanning over a century. This can be used to find out the future impact of climate change. Unfortunately, such data is not available for the Himalayan region. But we are trying to address the gap," he said.
What prompted the office to look at the region more closely were phone calls from hoteliers in Kalimpong complaining that the cool climes had changed drastically and summers had become so hot that one could not do without fans. "In Kalimpong, most hotels did not have fans because it was never required. But now, it is extremely uncomfortable. We need to understand what is causing this change," the Met official said.
To do so, the regional office has taken up an Integrated Himalayan Project to increase its network in the range. The proposed project pegged around Rs 300 crore includes installing 10 automatic rain gauges and eight snow gauges in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Sikkim. Once these are in place, the Met office will be able to collect high-altitude data on a regular basis.
The project also includes two Doppler radars, one in Sikkim and the other in Jalpaiguri. These are crucial to predict when there will be heavy downpour and map the path of cyclones in advance. It can save lives in the Hills.
