Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief A S Kiran Kumar on Saturday sounded an alert on huge impending impact on the nation’s economy and environment due to increasing climate change in the eastern Himalayas. The North-eastern region is prone to natural disasters like flood, landslide, thunderstorm, drought and forest fire.

“Climatic change is no longer a scientific curiosity but a great challenge facing us as an environmental issue impacting economy, livelihood, health safety, agriculture, food production and many other dimensions,” Kumar said at the second convocation of Assam Kaziranga University here.

ISRO chief concerned over climate challenges:

“Climate change is amongst the most concerning issues being discussed across the world. Shifting weather patterns, threat to food production through increased unpredictability of precipitation, rising sea levels contaminating coastal freshwater reserves, increasing risk of catastrophic flooding, and a warming atmosphere aids the pole-ward spread of pests and diseases once limited to the tropics,” he added.

In order to improve weather forecast services, including flood forecast and thunderstorms, ISRO’s North Eastern Space Application Centre at Shillong has developed innovative techniques under its Flood Early Warning System project involving the regional climate modelling centre, Guwahati.

The scope of this project has been extended to flood-prone areas in the North-eastern states and it has proved very helpful in managing floods in Assam.