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The majestic Himalayan mountain ranges will, in a few years time, tell us more about Indian monsoon. And these Himalayan rumblings will be used by our weathermen to get a better handle on forecasting monsoon, which play a vital role in Indian agriculture.
The Indian Meteorological Department is embarking upon a ₹350-crore project to study the impact of Himalayan mountains on the South West monsoon, its behaviour, journey and schedules, in greater detail.
“Himalayan mountains play a crucial role in monsoon circulation over India, a subject that has been least understood. It is for this that we are taking up this project in two phases that will give us better knowledge about monsoon patterns,” said IMD Director-General Laxman Singh Rathore.
In the first phase, the department will be setting up three Doppler stations with weather, snow and other gauges, in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand at a cost of ₹108 crore. This will be followed by similar stations across the North-East States at a cost of ₹250 crore to study temperature, wind speeds and other meteorological aspects.
“The scheme has been approved and it will be taken up over a period of three years,” he told BusinessLine on the sidelines of an international conference on Bio-resource and Stress Management here.
The Himalayas act as a towering barrier, blocking cold air in the northern latitudes from blowing into the sub-continent and subduing the moisture-laden ocean winds that whip up the monsoon. Scientists from Harvard University had argued that the Himalayas’ role as a barrier was the crucial factor for the monsoon.
Understanding and forecasting monsoon are crucial for Indian agriculture, as they account for nearly 70 per cent of the annual rainfall in the country. “Projections of monsoon rainfall pattern over India indicate that by 2050, a 10 per cent increase in amount and intensity of rainfall are likely due to climate change, leading to increase in erosive power of rainfall,” Rathore said.
A one per cent increase in rainfall intensity is likely to increase soil loss from crop lands by 1.5 per cent, he said.
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