BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday said there is a need for bridging the gap between environmental scientists and policy makers to meet the global challenge of climate change and global warming.
Inaugurating the four-day national symposium on Tropical Meteorology (TROPMET-2016) here, Pradhan said, the weather scientists’ contribution is huge which has been realised in the recent years given how their predications have saved lives and property. There is a whole lot of contributions they have to make advising policy makers as to what needs to be done since climate change will have massive impact in the days to come.
Pradhan said, the Centre has planned a coastal highway from Odisha to Andhra Pradesh and is looking at ports and tourism infrastructure. Environmental scientists will have to assess how climate change is going to impact such projects through coastal erosion and sea level changes.
The symposium, organised by the Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) in collaboration with the SOA University, Odisha Government and the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has brought together scientists, environmentalists and experts in the field from within the country and abroad.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology Pradeep Panigrahy said State Government has taken a lead in disaster mitigation in the country. “These initiatives are short term. What we need is long term plans from scientists,” he said.
Development Commissioner of Odisha R Balakrishnan said, there is a greater need to increase synergy between prediction, mitigation and intervention agencies so that cost of intervention can be worked out more accurately because huge infrastructure assets created along the coastline are at stake. He also lauded the India Meteorological Department saying the national agency has become become more accurate now with the development of technology.
Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr M Rajeevan, IMS President Prof Ajit Tyagi, Director of Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar Sarat Chandra Sahu, Chairman of the Advisory Board of SOA University, Prof Damodar Acharya and Secretary of IMS, Anand Sharma also spoke.
TROPMET 2016 will comprise five plenary sessions, 23 parallel technical sessions, two special evening lectures and an interaction session with media and NGOs over next three days.