The Director of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Sathesh C. Shenoi, said there was an urgent need for an ocean observing system to monitor the changing climate. Though there are several observing systems around the world that check on the oceans, the data available from them are still insufficient, he added.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day ‘Telangana Environment Congress-2019’ being organised by the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) in collaboration with National Institute of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Ni-MSME), Centre for Innovations in Public Institutions (CIPS) and Pure Earth Foundation (PEF).
The last decade saw systematic increase in the quantity and quality of observing the oceans around the country, and this needs to be sustained in the coming decades, he said, and called for major international collaborations for better understanding of the Indian Ocean. Explaining the reasons on why the change in oceans need to be studied in depth, the INCOIS Director said while warming of the climate system has been unequivocal, more than 90% of the heat has gone into the oceans since 1971! The ocean plants provide more than half of the oxygen that we breathe, besides providing food in the form of fish, he added.
“Our country is a ‘mega diversity’ one with only 2.4% of land area and 4% of marine area, and accounts for about 8% of the recorded species of the world, including 413 globally-threatened species. But just 45,968 species of plants and 91,364 species of animals have been documented so far,” said C. Achalender Reddy, Director, CIPS.
Osmania University Vice-Chancellor S. Ramachandram, Ni-MSME Director Sanjeev Chaturvedi and others spoke. About 23 papers, including six by student researchers, are to be presented at the congress.
