The experts on Sunday stressed on developing regional climate models and study it in terms of qualitative data instead of quantitative data.
Post to an enlightening discussion on climate change and the future of agriculture on the day one of 4th International Dialogue on Himalayan Ecology, the second day of the dialogue on Sunday took place at National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) campus here.
The national and international delegates discussed an array of topics related to the climate change and ecosystem services.
The first session on changing weather and water stress was chaired by Genevieve Ancel, Dialogue en Humanite, Lyon, France. "We have to learn through dancing in the storm," she said.
Anand Sharma, Deputy Director General, Indian Meteorology Department, New Delhi deliberated on the climate change observations, prediction and projection in the years to come. Sharma said, “According to my observation, the existing models are unable to analyze the change of temperature in the Himalayas. So, we need regional climate models and study it in terms of qualitative data instead of quantitative data.”
Sharma discussed El Nino and projected, “high resources climate model ‘PRECIS’ show good skill in representing smaller scale features of monsoon.”
He raised concern about the Uttarakhand’s worst climate change disaster in June 2012 and observed, “Not a single building that was built by Britishers had collapsed. It is not really the climate change that needs to be blamed, but our own Indians.”
Syncing with the same, Ravi Chopra, Former Director, People's Science Institute, Dehradun shared his apprehension about the building of highways on the bank of rivers. “We need to understand that projects like Char Dham Highway Project are causing damage to the environment and ultimately causing water stress in the society,” said Chopra.
“Water conservation must precede water exploitation and spring shed and watershed management should be done more judiciously,” he suggested.
Dr P S Negi, Snow & Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), Chandigarh further enlightened the delegates about snow harvesting and ways to mitigate water scarcity challenges in snowbound regions.
“According to the study of recent trends, there has been a reduction in the snow cover season. Since the last few years, everything has become exponential and the same goes for a change in temperature which is the ultimate reason behind the decrease in the surface area of snow,” he said.