Lok Sabha Question No. 5527 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-06
Subject: Extreme Weather Conditions
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Adoor Prakash, T.N. Prathapan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5527

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 6 TH  APRIL, 2022

## EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

## 5527.   ADV. ADOOR PRAKASH: SHRI T.N. PRATHAPAN:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reveals that the highest number of extreme weather events were recorded during the last five years;
- (b) if so, the action being taken to build resilience against the same;
- (c) whether the Central Indian States accounted for the most number of extreme weather related deaths in 2021 and if so, the reasons therefor;
- (d) whether any study has been conducted on the abnormal rise in the temperature in States like Kerala and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) the number of deaths due to extreme weather events from 2014 to till date, State/year-wise;
- (f) whether the Government has any plans to implement immediate and long term policy changes to address the impact of climate change on weather, especially in Central Indian States; and
- (g) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes  Sir.    Every  year,  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD)  prepares  "Annual  Climate Summary" for Indian region" which contains information regarding various extreme weather events observed within the country. The reports are available in Climate Research & Services (CRS) Division, IMD, Pune website (https://www.imdpune.gov.in/Clim\_Pred\_LRF\_New/Reports.html).  In  addition,  IMD  also brings out publication on the 'Disastrous weather events' every year.
- (b) IMD issues various outlook/forecast/warning at various time and spatial scales for Public as well  as  Disaster  Management  Authorities  for  the  preparedness  of  extreme  weather  events. India  is  now  having  one  of  the  best  dynamical  prediction  systems  for  supporting  early warning.  IMD has developed capability for generating real time forecasts and warnings in all spatial scales from a location to Block, district, meteorological subdivisions and homogeneous  regions  and  temporal  scales  of  a  few  hours  (nowcast),  3  days  (short  range forecast),  4-7  days  (medium  range  forecast)  1-4  weeks  (extended  range  forecast)  and  one month to a season (long range forecast). Now, more focus is given to develop on sectoral applications and further improvement in the prediction of extreme weather events.

Recently IMD brought out 'Climate Hazard & Vulnerability Atlas of India' prepared for the thirteen  most  hazardous  meteorological  events,  which  cause  extensive  damages,  economic, human, and animal losses. The same can be accessed at https://imdpune.gov.in/hazardatlas/abouthazard.html.  This atlas helps IMD as a reference to issue impact-based forecast for various extreme weather events.

The climate Hazard and vulnerability atlas will help state government authorities and Disaster Management Agencies for planning and taking appropriate action to tackle various extreme weather  events.  These  information  are  used  as  reference  for  weather  and  climate  services extended by the Department.

- (c) Central Indian States fall in the Core Monsoon Zone where the maximum number of rainy days occur normally during th monsoon season.  Also, the monsoon rain bearing systems such as low pressure area and depressions move through these states (west-northwestwards along the  monsoon  trough  region)  and  provide  copious  rainfall,  which  often  lead  to  flood  like situations.
- (d) Yes. Ministry of Earth Sciences has published 'Assessment of Climate Change over Indian Region'  recently.  This  report  prepared  by  the  CCCR,  contains  the  details  of  observed changes in our climate system and future projections of climate change based on observations and  climate  model  simulations.Past  climate  records  show  that  the  surface  air  temperature over India has risen by about 0.7 °C during 1901-2018. The surface temperature rise during 1986-2015 is at  a  faster  rate  of  0.15 o C per decade. Future projections  of  regional  climate, performed under different climate change scenarios, too indicate robust changes in the mean, variability and extremes of several key climatic parameters over the Indian subcontinent and adjoining areas (e.g. land temperature and precipitation, monsoons, Indian Ocean temperature and sea level, tropical cyclones, Himalayan cryosphere, etc).The report is available free of cost as reference material for further research work at the following link: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811543265
- (e) State/year-wise  loss  of  life  due  to  various  extreme  weather  events  is  given  as  figures  in Annexure-I.
- (f)-(g)  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences  (MoES)  has  established  a  Centre  for  Climate  Change  Research (CCCR) at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. The centre is dedicated to  carry  out  research  on  global  and  regional  climate  change  with  a  particular  focus  on  the Indian climate and the monsoons. CCCR has started the coupled climate modelling, and based on  the  efforts,  an  Indian  Climate  specific  Earth  System  Model  (ESM)  has  been  developed which is contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6 th Assessment  (IPCC-AR6).  Currently  efforts  are  on  going  to  generate  the  climate  change scenarios.

Recently, MoES has published 'Assessment of Climate Change over Indian Region' recently. This report prepared by the CCCR, contains the details of observed changes in our climate system  and  future  projections  of  climate  change  based  on  observations  and  climate  model simulations.  The  assessment  report  provides  a  detailed  overview  and  synthesis  of  the published scientific literature on climate change over India and adjoining regions. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports published every 6-7 years, largely provide a global perspective on climate change, the focus on regional climate change aspects is considerably limited. Therefore, this report fills this gap by discussing the past climate and regional climate change projections over the Indian subcontinent based on the climate models. The future projections of climate change are based on different scenarios as prescribed by IPCC.

## Annexure-I

<!-- image -->

<!-- image -->

For the year 2017

<!-- image -->

For the year 2018

<!-- image -->

For the year 2019

For the year 2020

<!-- image -->

<!-- image -->

For the year 2021

*******