Minister Rijiju Visits Pune IITM's Cloud Lab In Mahabaleshwar, Praises India's Climate Expertise

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said farmers and fishermen across the country are getting benefits of state-of-the-art research in climate and weather forecasting.

Rijiju was addressing a press conference after visiting the High Altitude Cloud Physics Laboratory (HACPL) at Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra's Satara district. HACPL has been established by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, to monitor critical atmospheric and cloud parameters regularly.

The Union Minister of Earth Sciences said India in the true sense had become 'atmanirbhar' (self-reliant) in climate studies and the world was believing in Indian modelling due to research and advancements in the field.

"India is making progress in the field of timely prediction of natural calamities"

"Farmers and fishermen across the country are getting the benefits of state-of-the-art research in the climate and weather forecasting sector. India has performed well in this field for the past nine years," an official release quoted him as saying.

India is making progress in the field of timely prediction of natural calamities like cloudbursts and earthquakes and the country will soon be able to accurately predict these and avoid large scale damage, he added.

Indigenous systems are being created for this purpose, while planning is being done to build resilient infrastructure in the country to efficiently face natural calamities, he said.

Rijiju expressed confidence the meteorological department will play a major role in enhancing strawberry production in Mahabaleshwar by providing accurate weather predictions.