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The Union Minister of State for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh disclosed on Sunday that union forest and environment ministry will join hands with the Indian Space Research Organisation for the setting up of a National Institutes for studying climate and environment in Bangalore.
"The institute will have an initial investment of Rs.40 crore (Rs.400 million) and 100 experts to study the impact of climate change and the fallout of greenhouse emissions on the environment," said Ramesh, while addressing the media.
The study centre, National Institute for Climate and Environmental Sciences, will enable the scientists for conducting long-term research projects on the effect of climate on the economic aspects.
"We are waiting for government approval to set up the institute in the next couple of months. It will be a huge step in creating the infrastructure for long-term research on climate change," Ramesh said.
The institute, to be commissioned by this year-end, will monitor and measure the impact of global warming on the Himalayan glaciers, which have been retreating with their snow cover dwindling.
"The data compiled so far by western countries on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers is biased, as its analysis was based on changes in the Arctic glaciers. As we do not have a programme to monitor the health of Himalayan glaciers, the institute will undertake the exercise for three years," Ramesh pointed out.
He added that in addition to studying the climate change, the institute will be involved in measuring the effect of greenhouse emissions on forests in Kerala, Western Ghats in Karnataka, north-east, Uttarkhand and in the Indo-Gangetic plains of central India.
ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair mentioned that the numbers of towers and ground stations will be increased in forests so that the carbon sink absorption can be monitored.
"Greenhouse emission is different in each geographic region of the country. There is a regional variation in the absorption of greenhouse gases in Kerala forests, Western Ghats in Karnataka and in the Indo-Gangetic plains. An average of 10 percent of greenhouse gases is absorbed by our forests," Ramesh noted.
The Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) programme has already been set up for studying the relation between climate change and its impact on socio-economic aspects.
"ISRO will also be involved in the INCCA programme to build up our own monitoring, measuring and modelling (3Ms) mechanism to study the impact of climate change due to global warming," Ramesh stated.
He mentioned that since India did not own a climate change monitoring system the data on climate change and its impact on India have been derived from the West.
"We need to rectify this anomaly by integrating ISRO with the mainstream climate change resources. We will have an ISRO representative at the ensuing Copenhagen summit in December for global negotiations on climate change," Ramesh added.
