Much of data from western sources biased: Jairam Ramesh

Union Minister for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said there was need for setting up India's own research initiatives to measure and monitor climate change.

Union Minister for Forest and Environment Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said there was need for setting up India’s own research initiatives to measure and monitor climate change as much of the data derived from western sources was found to be “biased”.

“The tragedy today is all knowledge on climate change in India is derived from western source,much of which is biased. No primary monitoring is done in India,” the minister told reporters here.

He said in 1990,US estimated that methane gas emission from paddy cultivation in India was 38 million tonnes per year but an Indian scientist later proved the emission from such cultivation varied from two to six million tonnes,with the median being four million tonnes.

The minister said all data on Himalayan glacier was from western sources based on Artic glacier. “However the structure of the Artic glacier was different from Himalayan glacier.”

The major obective of setting up institues like the Indian Network for Comprehensive Climate Assestment,involving 127 research bodies,and the National Institute of Climate Institue was to build “monitoring,measuring and modelling” capabilites and to respond innovatively and creatively to climate change.

He said ISRO’s plans to launch dedicated satellites to measure and monitor greenhouse emissions was to “demonstrate to the world that we are serious about global warming”. India would be among the few countries like Japan and those in Europe to have such dedicated satellites,he said.

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