India is on the verge of developing a new climate prediction model exhibiting climatic fluctuations on decadal timescales that have large societal implications, Shailesh Naik, Secretary to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has said.
Addressing the media here on Saturday, Mr. Naik said scientists of various agencies led by the India Meteorological Department were on the final stage of establishing a model that could forecast the subtleties of climate with a fair degree of accuracy.
“Having successfully developed regional climate models, we are set to come up with a decadal forecasting system within the next couple of months,” he said, adding that the country is at present in the process of strengthening its in-house modelling capabilities.
Along with this, the Geological Survey of India has been working on area-specific forecasting of landslides. Once developed, they would be integrated with the weather prediction models to establish a warning system.
Regarding his meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy recently, Mr.Naik, who is also the chairman of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Committee, said the committee would sympathetically consider the concerns of Kerala with regard to implementation of the norms and then come up with appropriate solutions.
“The State government has conveyed its concerns on certain regulations of the CRZ and our mandate is to examine the intensity of its complaints and assess the impact of implementing the CRZ based on certain parameters such as population and pollution etc.,” he said. In addition to Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka too expressed their reservations regarding the CRZ norms. “Of late, the government of Gujarat has also approached with similar complaints and we expect to complete the examination process and draft a report by the end of September,” Mr.Naik said.
