Dr Bhagirathi Behera, a retired IFS officer, held many key positions during his tenure including Director Environment-cum-Special Secretary to Government of Odisha. He has added a feather unto his cap by receiving PhD from Washington DC, besides having an MTech degree. He has spearheaded the Climate Change Action Plan, the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan, implementation of pollution control Acts and Rules under the State Government, besides being member of the State Pollution Control Board, the Management and Protection of Endangered Eco System, the Protection of Natural Resources & Wetlands, the Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources & Biodiversity, the Promotion of Environmental Awareness & Environmental Education, the Plantation & Forest Protection, etc.
His book Natural Resource Conservation and Environment Management with international circulation has created ripples among researchers and thinking community of the world. Dr Behera traces the erratic and unpredictable behaviour of the monsoon to a rare global phenomenon called El Nino that occurs in the Pacific, believed to be the Navel Point of the world. In an interview to The Pioneer, Dr Behera spoke to Sugyan Choudhury from the precincts of the Regional Natural History Museum, Bhubaneswar.
How does El Nino affect the affairs of this earth of oursIJ
El Nino events are a prominent feature of climate variability with global climatic impacts. The 1997/98 episode, often referred to as “the climate event of 20th century” , and the 1982/83 extreme El Nino featured a pronounced eastward extension of the West Pacific warm pool and development of atmospheric convection and a huge rainfall increase in the usually cold and dry equatorial Eastern Pacific. Such massive reorganisation of atmospheric convection, Extreme El Nino, severely disrupts the global weather pattern and affects the eco systems and agriculture and causes tropical cyclones, drought, bushfire, floods and other extreme weather events.
What are the future consequences and phenomenon of El NinoIJ
Potential future changes in such extreme El Nino occurrences are likely to have profound socioeconomic consequences. This year, there’s talk of El Nino. Its impact on our monsoon is noticed everywhere. But to some experts, the El Nino is expected to peak before June and would be in the devolving phase during the rainy season. El Niño is defined by prolonged warming in the Pacific Ocean when compared with the average value. Typically, this anomaly happens at irregular intervals of two to seven years and lasts nine months to two years. The average period length is five years. When this warming occurs for seven to nine months, it is classified as El Niño "conditions". When its duration is longer, it is classified as an El Niño "episode".
How does El Nino affect the weather conditions of the globeIJ
El Niño affects the weather in large parts of the world. The effects depend strongly on the location and the season. The strongest effects on precipitation are in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific Ocean, especially in the dry season (August-November). There are temperature effects throughout most of the tropics. The number of tropical cyclones also depends on El Niño in most basins. In boreal winter, the effects are most widespread, from southern Africa to eastern Russia and most of the Americas.
What are the tangible impacts of El Nino recorded so farIJ
The visible impacts recorded so far are the the famine in Indonesia, bushfires in Australia during droughts, droughts in California, destruction of fishery off the coast of Peru, devastating floods in America, storm hits in China, droughts in Austria and forest fires in South-East Asia and Brazil. As you know, El Nino is an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that leads to unusual warming of water in the Peru coast. Consequently, warm water plus low pressure condition develops in the Eastern Pacific (Peru) and cold condition plus high pressure in Western Pacific (Australia). Since pressure is inversely related to the amount of rainfall, El Nino causes drought situation in Australia and South-East Asia. El Nino also leads to reversal of pressure difference between Indian and Pacific Oceans, known as Southern Oscillation. El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weakens the trade winds; consequently less push to the south-western monsoon winds from Mascarene High to India, and, therefore, poor monsoon.
How has the Indian Sub-Continent been affected by El NinoIJ
Drought conditions owing to El Nino decrease the agricultural output. It results in food price inflation, declined supply of cotton, oilseeds and sugarcane negatively affects the textile, edible oil and food processing industries, respectively.
How does it affect the global scenario furtherIJ
The effects of El Nino in the world may include drought situation over South-East Asia and Australia, adversely affecting rice and wheat cultivation, respectively; warm condition over the Peru coast; unsuitable for Plankton population, thus bad for the fishing industry; birds migrate in search of fishes, thus less guano dropping for the fertiliser industry in Peru and Ecuador; and flood situation in South America and the US Midwest leading to decline in coffee-cocoa and corn-wheat production, respectively.
Do you mean to say that El Nino has a debilitating effect, particularly on IndiaIJ
Prediction on impacts of El Nino cannot be defined as worse in India. For example, while the majority of drought years in India coincide with the occurrence of the El Niño, the reverse link is not that strong. (meaning, El Nino doesn’t always lead to drought). In 1997 when the impact of El Niño was reported to be the worst, India had a two-per cent higher than normal rainfall. In the past decade, the El Niño occurred in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009, but 2002-03 was the only year that India showed a negative agricultural sector growth with average rainfall dropping 20 per cent below the normal; and the last four occurrences of El Niño reveal that the impact was more in the Kharif season.