Agartala, Aug 01, 2024, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Aug 1: Extremely dry and severely dry conditions were observed over parts of the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim in 2021.

Such weather conditions were also observed in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, as per India’s Third National Communication submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2023.

It said various parts of the country have experienced extreme events along with the climatic variations and long-term trends in precipitation and temperature. These events include cyclonic storms, droughts, floods, lightning, thunderstorms, snowfall, cold waves, and heat waves.

An official release said on Thursday the India Meteorological Department (IMD) analysed trends for precipitation and drought like conditions over India using ‘Standardised Precipitation Index’ (SPI). 

Further, as per a study by the National Remote Sensing Centre, the number of states affected by major floods increased from eight in 2017 to 15 in 2021.

Analysis of trends in heavy rainfall and flooding indicate that their frequency is increasing in some parts of India, including the peninsular, east, northeast, and some parts of central India.

As per the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) of Manipur, the state is vulnerable to the water-induced disasters because of its location in the eastern Himalayan periphery, fragile geo-environmental setting and economic under-development.

The valley areas witnessed frequent floods even after short spell of storm due to various reasons like manmade ecological changes in the catchment areas, the high intensity rainfall during the rainy season in the hilly areas.

The flash floods affect agricultural lands and habitats, the urban settlement areas during rainy season. The damage due to flood comprise of breach of bunds, overflowing, landslides, erosion and depression of riverbanks at the vulnerable areas.

State specific studies on the impact of climate change indicate that crop yields would decrease decreased income from poor crop production, related food security and nutritional issues, increase in vector borne diseases and migration of population from rural to urban areas.

The release, based on a reply given by Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh in the Rajya Sabha, said the Government is implementing the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which provides the overarching framework for climate actions, through national missions in specific areas of solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, water, agriculture, Himalayan eco-system, sustainable habitat, green India, human health and strategic knowledge on climate change.

These Missions are institutionalised and implemented by respective nodal Ministries and Departments.

In line with the NAPCC, various States/Union Territories (UTs) have prepared respective SAPCC to address state-specific issues related to climate change. All SAPCCs call for mitigating disaster risk due to changes in extreme weather patterns, which include the development of Hazard Risk Vulnerability Assessment reports (HRVA), State Disaster Management Plans (SDMPs) and State Disaster Management Force (SDRF).

Developing knowledge and capacities to monitor and forecast extreme events to inform disaster risk management and its reduction is a broad goal.

For examples, the release said, the development of spatial flood early warning models using very high-resolution Digital Terrain Models now provide alarms for spatial flooding in flood-prone regions of India.

A web-enabled semi-automated spatial early warning system runs in operational mode in real-time with data support from Central Water Commission (CWC) and India Meteorological Department (IMD), and results are disseminated through Geo-portals.

For assessing floods and other extreme events, the Rapid Response and Emergency Services/Decision Support Centre (RRES/DSC) has been established under Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) - Disaster Management Support (DMS) programme.

The IMD provides regular assessments of the seasonal outlook for the hot weather season and daily temperature forecasts over India at different temporal and spatial scales. These are used as a prompt early warning of extreme heat.