In a first, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has included regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad as part of its Jammu & Kashmir meteorological sub-division as they are parts of India.
Muzaffarabad is part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) while Gilgit-Baltistan is also under illegal Pakistani occupation. These cities of PoK have now found a place in the overall forecast of the northwest division.
It also reflects the changed status of Ladakh as a separate Union Territory. The IMD move comes days after the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Islamabad to amend a 2018 administrative order to conduct general elections in the region.
The Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 provided for administrative changes, including authorizing the Prime Minister of Pakistan to legislate on an array of subjects.
IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that the IMD has been issuing weather bulletin for entire Jammu & Kashmir & Ladakh area. Mohapatra said they have been mentioning areas under PoK under its daily weather bulletin ever since the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir in the two union territories August last year.
Dr Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the Regional Meteorological Centre confirmed that the IMD has started including Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, which are parts of PoK, under the Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, meteorological sub-division since May 5 that gives forecast for the northwest meteorological division of the IMD. The change in name started to get reflected from Tuesday in the daily forecast for northwest India, issued by IMD.
Mohapatra said that the IMD, being the World Meteorological Department nominated Regional Meteorological Centre, provides severe weather warnings to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan detailing forecasts for the next five days “We were mentioning this information in our national bulletin. For the past two days, we have started mentioning this information in our regional bulletin,” Mohapatra added.
The northwest division consists of nine sub-divisions - Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi-Chandigarh-Haryana, Punjab, east Uttar Pradesh, west Uttar Pradesh, east Rajasthan and west Rajasthan. The inclusion of Muzaffarabad and Gilgit-Baltistan in the forecast comes amid Pakistan’s Supreme Court allowing elections in Gilgit-Baltistan this week. India had strongly reacted to the development.