The Hindu 18.12.2009
“Urbanisation, pollution cause for global warming”
Staff Reporter
| Call for including disaster management in curriculum |
— Photo: G. Karthikeyan 
Grow trees: S.R. Ramanan, Director, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, speaking at a conference in Dindigul on Thursday.
DINDIGUL: Massive urbanisation and air pollution are the major factors for the rise in temperature and global warming. Balanced growth in the development and protection of nature, particularly eco system, is the need of the hour to check rise in temperature, said S.R. Ramanan, Director (Cyclone Warning Centre), Regional Mateorological Centre, Chennai.
Talking to presspersons at the International Conference on Disaster Management and Mitigation held at P.S.N.A. College of Engineering and Technology here on Thursday, he said that development activities could not be stopped for the growth of nation. At the same time, protective measures, like growing trees and restricting use of vehicles, should be initiated seriously to protect nature and curtail rise in temperature. Industrial development and preservation of nature should go hand in hand, he advised.
Massive awareness was essential to save people, particularly in rural areas from lightning attack. Awareness alone would provide adequate safety to individuals. Many people were killed by lightning. People should not stand in an open area or under tall trees and also under a single tree. They should stay in homes at villages. Following these simple steps would certainly save precious lives.
Briefing rainfall scenario this season, the director stated that the rain was very poor in Karur, Vellore, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. Fall in rainfall would adversely scale down agriculture production. But the over all rainfall in the State was 42 cm, marginally lower than the average rain of 43.2 cm this season.
Moreover, monsoon always differed from one another. With the availability of sophisticated technology, all information about monsoon was being posted in the internet in half an hour, Mr. Ramanan said.
When the air speed was 31 kmph, it was considered as low depression, between 31-51 kmph it was called depression, 52-62 kmph deep depression, 73-87 kmph cyclone, 88-117 severe cyclone, 118-221 kmph very severe cyclone and above 222 kmph, it was described super cyclone, he added.
The solar, wind and hydel energies were clean and pollution free technologies of which solar energy was more dependable. Disaster management could be included in school and college syllabus. Later, he delivered a special lecture and interacted with students in the conference.
