While responding to a question raised in Parliament, the minister said: “Extreme rainfall events that occurred at some isolated places (heavy rainfall over Mumbai, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Kashmir) are highly localized and are part of the natural variability of the Indian monsoon system. Although some recent studies hint at an increasing frequency and intensity of extremes in rainfall during the past 40-50 years, their attribution to global warming is yet to be established,” MrJavadekar said, adding, “there is no conclusive evidence to attribute observed weather and climate variability to the increased concentrations of Green House Gases and associated global warming.”

“Daily mean temperature over the country is found to be increasing more or less at the same rate as the global mean (0.63 degree Celsius since 1901). Spatial pattern of trends in the mean annual temperature shows significant positive (increasing) trend over most parts of the country except over parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar, where significant negative (decreasing) trends were observed,” he added.

This comes about five months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his radio programme Mann kiBaat had expressed concerns over incessant rains in Tamil Nadu, that had claimed over 250 lives, in November last year.

“There is continuous news of natural calamities from various parts of the world. And sometimes the news is very bizarre, never seen or never heard of,” Mr Modi had said in his radio programme.