Teachers trained about extreme weather events

A two-day workshop on ‘Weather, Climate and Natural Hazards’ at the SOA (Deemed to be University) was organised here on Friday.

Odisha’s tryst with cyclones, heavy precipitation leading to floods, heat wave conditions, drought and lightning is well known and it hasbeen taking a heavy toll of human lives and property, Professor Emeritus at the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, IIT-Bhubaneswar Prof Uma Charan Mohanty said, while addressing the workshop.

The workshop, organised by the Bhubaneswar chapter of the Indian Meteorological Society (IMS) and SOA’s Centre for Environment and Climate (CEC), was attended by around 60 school teachers who teach science and geography.

“We thought of educating the teachers as they could train students and the society at large about the change in climate we are experiencing as also the method to cope with the same,” Professor Emeritus at IIT-Delhi and President of IMS Prof SK Dash said in his opening remarks.

Referring to the causes of global warming which was being fuelled by human lifestyle and development activities, Prof Mohanty said the global mean temperature had risen by more than one degree C and the 17 year period between 1990 and 2006 had witnessed 12 of the warmest years.

Scientist-E of Indian Meteorological Department Prof DR Pattnaik also made a presentation on heat waves during the day.

Dean (Research and Development) of SOA Prof PK Nanda said the CEC, which began functioning a few months ago, had been providing accurate forecast of weather conditions to the Government.

“The SOA, as a research-oriented institute, is willing to take the lead in combating weather hazards in collaboration with other stakeholders,” he said.

Director of CEC Dr SC Sahu, Chief General Manager, Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA) Subhdendra Nayak and Head of Department of Civil Engineering at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) Prof MR Das among others were present.