Extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts, heat and cold waves, flash floods and cyclones are showing significant impact on Indian water resources, observed Skhilesh Gupta, Climate Change Programme Head and Adviser to Department of Science and Technology (DST), here on Monday.
He was delivering the keynote address at a webinar organised on World Water Day, organised by GITAM Deemed to be University Institute of Science Environmental Science Department.
According to him, heavy rainfall and flood events are increasing in India while low rainfall events and number of total rainy days are decreasing.
He said that the temperature rise will increase in future, which ultimately will lead to rise in sea level in coastal areas. Among all disasters, floods and storms have shown maximum increasing trend in the last three decades, he added.
He said that low human development index States like Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal are identified as most vulnerable States.
Dr. Akhilesh Gupta highlighted how the DST was supporting climate change programmes across the country. He said that under DST climate change programme, the Centre was focussing on glaciology, climate modelling, urban climate, aerosol studies, extreme events and Himalayan ecosystem studies during the next five years.
GITAM Deemed to be University Vice-Chancellor K. Sivaramakrishna said that declining water quality has become a global issue of concern as human population was growing exponentially, industrial and agricultural activities are expanding, and climate change threatens to cause major alterations to the hydrological cycle.
CSIR-National Geographical Research Institute (NGRI) Scientist V. Balaram said that huge amounts of hazardous substances is getting accumulated quickly in vast amounts and polluting landfills and groundwater causing threat to human health.
He said that every newborn baby has more than 100 industrial chemicals in their blood stream at birth.
He said that drinking water resources in our country are at the risk of potential contamination. He spoke about recent NGRI studies on anthropogenic emissions in Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Bengaluru which had showed high concentration of Pt, Pd and Rh toxic elements.
GITAM Pro Vice-Chancellor Jayashankar Variyar, Science Dean A. Subrahmanyam, Institute of Science Principal M. Sarathchandra Babu, Environmental Science Department Head N. Srinivas and others participated in the webinar.
