Lok Sabha Question No. 2831 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-12-17
Subject: Rising Threats of Climate Change
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Anurag Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2831

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 17 TH  DECEMBER, 2025

## RISING THREATS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

## 2831.   SHRI ANURAG SHARMA:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the rising threats posed by climate change, soil degradation,  groundwater depletion  and the  rapid  deterioration  of  natural  resources across various regions of the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to strengthen Earth science research and education particularly in the areas of geological surveys, environmental monitoring and long-term climate assessment;
- (c) the details of initiatives underway to upgrade national capabilities for data collection, early warning and forecasting systems for floods, droughts, landslides and other natural disasters;
- (d) whether additional support is being planned for advanced remote sensing and Earth system modelling and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether the Government proposes to promote enhanced collaboration among national research institutions, universities, ISRO, IMD and international scientific agencies to accelerate innovation in this field; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof and the expected outcomes of such initiatives?

## ANSWER

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

- (a)-(b)  The Government has taken due note of the climate change across the country. The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India, through its Climate Change report titled "Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2)" has assessed the impact of climate change across the country. Since the middle of the twentieth century, India has witnessed a rise in average temperature; a decrease in monsoon precipitation; a rise in extreme temperature and rainfall events, droughts, and a rise in sea levels; and an increase  in  the  intensity  of  severe  cyclones.  The  soil  degradation  and  groundwater depletion is emerging as one of the most serious environmental and socio-economic challenges.

The Government has undertaken multiple initiatives to advance Earth science research, capacity  building,  and  educational  infrastructure  across  the  country.  Dedicated institutes under the MoES e.g., Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), India Meteorological  Department  (IMD),  National  Centre  for  Medium  Range  Weather Forecasting  (NCMRWF),  Indian  National  Centre  for  Ocean  Information  Services (INCOIS),  National  Centre  for  Coastal  Research  (NCCR),  National  Centre  for

Seismology (NCS), National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology (CMLRE),  National  Center  for  Earth  System  Sciences  (NCESS)  are  advancing research  in  the  interactions  between  the  atmosphere,  oceans,  and  polar  systems, focusing on their role in regional climate dynamics and extreme weather patterns. IITM lead the flagship capacity-building initiative under MoES, the Development of Skilled Manpower in Earth System Sciences (DESK) program, with the objective to develop academic habit through training on targeted areas and semester-based coursework in Earth Sciences. Efforts are also being made to strengthen the scientific community's capacity in climate science and assessment through training programs, workshops, and knowledge exchanges, ensuring that India has the necessary expertise to understand and respond to the complex climate challenges.

- (c)-(d)  The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has developed advanced early warning systems for severe weather events such as cyclones, heavy rainfall, droughts, and other extreme conditions. Early warning for severe weather events is supported by a state-of-the-art observation  network  that  includes  surface,  upper  air,  remote  sensing  observations, seamless forecasting systems based on high-resolution dynamical models, and GISbased tools for generating alerts and warnings. The entire system is integrated with modern telecommunication technologies to ensure the timely and effective dissemination of information.

Recently,  the  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD),  in  coordination  with  other centres in the MoES, has developed an end-to-end GIS-based Decision Support System (DSS), which has been working as the front end of the early warning systems for the timely detection and monitoring of all-weather hazards across the country, including the States regularly affected by cyclones and other natural disasters. It is supported with specific severe weather modules to provide timely impact-based early warnings for extreme weather events like cyclones, heavy rainfall, droughts, etc., which devastate human  lives,  livelihoods,  and  infrastructure.  The  system  utilizes  historical  data, including extreme events, as well as real-time surface and upper-air meteorological observations available for the Indian region and its neighbouring areas. It also includes RADAR observations,  available  every  10  minutes,  and  satellite  products  every  15 minutes. It also uses numerical weather prediction products from a suite of models run in  the  MoES  institutions.  These  include  hyperlocal,  regional,  and  global  models. Further,  IMD  plays  a  crucial  role  in  safeguarding  lives  and  property  through  its advanced observational network and forecasting systems, enabling timely preparedness and response in close collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).  This  coordinated  approach  ensures  that  accurate  and  timely  weather information reaches authorities and the public, enhancing disaster risk reduction efforts across the country.

The  Central  Water  Commission  (CWC)  is  mandated  to  issue  short-range  flood forecasts  with  a  lead  time  of  up  to  24  hours  to  concerned  State  Governments  at identified locations. Timely flood forecasts are being issued when a certain threshold limit is reached. The CWC has taken several steps by adopting various dissemination mechanisms to get maximum reach to the flood warnings, so that mitigation measures can be adopted by State Governments, SDMA, NDMA, and the public. Further, with an aim of disseminating information related to the flood situation in the country and flood forecasts up to 7 days on a real-time basis to the public through mobile phones, version 2.0 of the 'FloodWatch India' mobile application has been developed by the

CWC, which  provides  current  information  on  flood  conditions  across  the  country. Further, it also provides additional information regarding the storage positions of 150 major reservoirs in the country, which helps in a better understanding of the possible flood situation in their downstream areas. The 'FloodWatch India' app is available for download.

The  Geological  Survey  of  India  (GSI)  is  mandated  to  conduct  landslide  studies  in landslide-prone areas in the country. In July 2024, with the inauguration of the National Landslide  Forecasting  Centre  (NLFC)  at  Kolkata,  GSI  achieved  a  milestone  by operationalizing landslide forecasting in three districts in two States, viz. Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal and the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. At present, RLFS covers 21 districts (04 operational and 17 experimental) in eight states (West  Bengal,  Tamil  Nadu,  Uttarakhand,  Himachal  Pradesh,  Sikkim,  Nagaland, Karnataka,  and  Kerala).  These  bulletins  forecast  information  on  the  possibility  of occurrence of landslides up to the taluk / sub-divisional level daily for the next 48 hours.

IMD has adopted new techniques and technology from time to time to detect, monitor, and provide timely early warnings for the entire country, including the States regularly affected by all types of extreme weather events like cyclones, heavy rainfall, droughts, etc., which have devastating impacts on human lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. There has been significant progress in this direction with:

-  Strengthening  of  the  observing  system  with  installation  of  additional  AWS, ARG, and DWR, etc.
-  Improvement of the data integration and development of GIS-based DSS.
-  Improvement  of  NWP  models  and  climate  models,  as  well  as  a  real-time seamless monitoring, forecasting, and early warning system.
-  Shifting  from  conventional  weather  forecast  and  warning  to  sector-specific color-coded Impact-based forecast (IBF) and risk-based warning (RBW) up to district/sub-city levels with dynamical impact and risk matrix.
-  Application of AI/ML.
-  Customisation of bulletins and warnings.
-  Substantial increase of computational power to integrate voluminous data and to run meso-scale, regional, and global models at a further higher resolution scale with improvement  of process understanding and model physics. Supercomputers (Arka and Arunika) are being used for this purpose.
-  Panchayat Mausam Seva.
-  A state-of-the-art dissemination system with the use of a mobile app, Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), WhatsApp groups, etc.
-  IMD developed a mobile App, 'MAUSAM' for weather forecasting, 'Meghdoot' for Agromet advisory dissemination, and 'Damini' for lightning alerts.

IMD has also brought out a web-based online "Climate Hazard & Vulnerability Atlas of India" prepared for the thirteen most hazardous meteorological events, which cause extensive damage and economic, human, and animal losses. The same can be accessed at  https://imdpune.gov.in/hazardatlas/abouthazard.html.  This  atlas  will  help  State Government authorities and disaster management agencies identify the hotspots and plan and take appropriate action to tackle extreme weather events. This product helps build Climate Change resilient infrastructure.

The Government of India has recently launched Mission Mausam, a national initiative, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences with a goal of making Bharat a "Weather-ready and  Climate-smart"  nation  to  mitigate  the  impact  of  climate  change  and  extreme weather events and strengthen the resilience of communities. Under Mission Mausam, initiatives  are  undergoing  to  develop  a  hybrid  Earth  System  Modeling  framework (dynamical model with AI based parameterisation) for weather predictions and  climate projections. In addition, India has augmented its HPC power by commissioning stateof-the-art High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems 'Arka' (at the Indian Institute of  Tropical  Meteorology, Pune) and  'Arunika'  (at the  National  Centre  for MediumRange Weather Forecasting, Noida) for Earth System Modeling. Enhancing the HPC facilities and Earth System Modeling capabilities are planned under Mission Mausam.

- (e)-(f)  Various initiatives were undertaken to foster enhanced collaboration among national research  institutions  within  India.  Major  national  missions,  such  as  the  Mission Mausam,  Monsoon  Mission,  and  Deep  Ocean  Mission,  are  designed  to  enhance collaboration  across  various  national  institutes  like  IITM,  IMD,  ISRO,  NCMRWF, INCOIS,  NIOT,  and  national  research  institutions  and  universities.  Joint  research initiatives  integrate  satellite  data  from  ISRO  with  forecasting  systems  of  IMD  and research  inputs  from  academic  institutions.  India  is  actively  collaborating  with international programs like the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the World Weather Research Program, etc., on weather and climate research and to develop and improve weather and climate models.  These  models  aim  to  simulate  and  predict  the  interactions  between  the atmosphere, ocean, and polar regions, crucial for understanding regional extremes and climate impacts. These collective actions contribute to a more robust understanding of Earth System interactions, which is essential for enhancing India's resilience to extreme weather and climate change impacts.

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