Climate change: India feels the heat

Hyderabad: Climate change may be far from an immediate or even long-term concern for many, but the impact of greenhouse gas emissions across the globe is being felt in India too, the Government of India has told the Parliament.

The impact of a rise in global temperatures — that led to an increase in the average temperature over India — has also led to a rise in the level of the Indian Ocean that has been gnawing away at the Indian land mass by an imperceptible 3.3 mm a year. Between 1993 and 2017, the total rise in the sea level was a 7.92 centimetres around India, as per the data tabled in the Parliament by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The MoEF&CC, in a reply to a question from Hyderabad Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi, said that in just a little over a century, the average temperature in India rose by 0.7 degrees Celsius (°C), and the number of intense spells of rainfall has increased, along with a rise in frequency of severe cyclonic storms, over the Arabian Sea in the past 65 years.

“Climate change impacts cannot be seen or perceived over short periods of time, just as sea level rise cannot be perceived over a short period of time. Mapping changes over long periods makes these evident,” said G.P.S. Murthy, a former chief scientist with the National Institute of Oceanography.

The MoEF&CC, quoting the ministry of earth science’s 2020 report, ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’, stated that India’s average temperature increased by around 0.7°C during 1901-2018.  

The report also pointed out that by the end of the 21st century, the average temperature over India is projected to rise by approximately 4.4°C relative to the recent past (1976–2005 average).

In its reply to Owaisi’s question, the ministry said that the frequency of daily rainfall, of over 150 mm a day, increased by about 75 per cent during 1950-2015. The ministry said the frequency and spread of droughts over India too increased significantly during 1951-2015.

It stated that the sea level rose in the North Indian Ocean at a rate of 3.3 mm per year between 1993 and 2017, while the frequency of severe cyclonic storms over the Arabian Sea increased during the post-monsoon seasons of 1998-2018.