Climate Change – The KGP Chronicle

Tropical Rainforest will Survive the Future global warming: finds IIT Kharagpur study

The tropical rain forests (TRF) like Amazon or Western Ghats are considered as “the lungs of the planet”, contain about 200-300 petagram (10¹⁵) or approx. 1/3^rd of the total atmospheric carbon and plays a crucial role in modulating the global carbon cycle, biodiversity and hydrological cycle. The 2023 AR6 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns if the CO₂ emission and global warming continues unabated the TRF community may altogether collapse much before the end of this century, and will drive a global catastrophe affecting nearly 800 million people worldwide. However, scientists are sharply divided on this issue. Predictions made through climate-vegetation models suggest that just a 2˚C increase in mean annual temperature could increase the respiration rates and push trees to their photosynthetic threshold causing their mortality. This will be compounded by increased extreme events like variability in rainfall, droughts and wildfires. Yet others think that over longer time scale plants will adapt to these changes by changing their diversities or invading into favourable climate zones. This has indeed been found in the Andes where low elevation warmer region trees are invading into the colder higher altitude region. In the Himalayas the Rhododendrons blooming time is slowly changing. The only way to test these contradicting predictions is to study the evolutionary record of the TRF plant community and the climate in the past when the earth went through natural warming phase due to high CO₂ emission.

Position of Indian landmass 56 million years back with location of Vastan, Gujarat (Yellow asterisk)

A team of scientists from IIT Kharagpur, Calcutta University and University of Western Ontario have studied detail records of TRF in sediments from Vastan coal mines of Gujarat deposited in coastal lagoons around 56 million years back. India was a tropical island then surrounded by oceans and Himalayas were yet to form. The period is known as Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) when global carbon dioxide rose to >1000 ppmv, an abnormally high level that the future global warming might reach. The PETM is the most rapid global warming event known in Earth’s history. An amount of carbon approximately equal to the total modern fossil fuel reservoir was released in the ocean-atmosphere system due to release of carbon stored in sea-floor sediments. The coal layers in Vastan are nothing but a spectacularly fossilized tropical rain forest containing huge amount of plant and pollen remains as well as variety of mammals and insects those lived in these forests. In fact, world’s earliest mammals evolved here due to this climate shift at PETM.

The Coal beds of Vastan that was once a dense tropical rain forest

“The study took several years of field and laboratory investigation. We had to date the sediments to confirm its PETM age and collected samples at centimeter intervals, analyzed the pollens to understand how the TRF community evolved in response to such extreme global warming. To understand how the climate changed during this super-greenhouse globe we analyzed isotopes of carbon in the plant organic matter and developed special techniques of measuring isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in micron size clay mineral kaolinite that precipitated in these lagoonal water. The climate was also monitored by analyzing oxygen isotopes in fossil teeth of small horse-like ungulate mammals those once roamed in these forests,” said Prof. Anindya Sarkar, the lead researcher of IIT Kharagpur. The study has just been published online in prestigious El Sevier Journal Global and Planetary Change.

Fossil remain of plant that grew during the super greenhouse earth

“Pollens are widely dispersed by air and water, resistant to decay and are invaluable indicators for reconstructing ancient biomes. Evidence of huge diversity (70 families and 256 taxa) of dense tropical rainforest trees like Sal, Mahogany, Palm, a variety of evergreen and mangrove plants are preserved in the sediment and coal beds of Vastan. No wonder that such rain forest harbored diverse animals including ancestors of early horses, snakes and insects,” said Prof. Subir K Bera of Calcutta University, an expert in ancient plants and co-author of the paper.

Pollens of 56 million year old rain forest trees

“We found a large anomaly in carbon isotopes exactly at 56 million year. This was such a characteristic signal for a super greenhouse globe with very high atmospheric CO₂. The hydrogen and oxygen isotope compositions in clays depend on land temperature and amount of rainfall and act as snapshots of past climate. Likewise, the isotopes in fossil teeth record the history of what water animals drank. As the CO₂ began to increase, the land became abnormally hot >40^oC. But to our surprise we found that the temperature came down to ~30^oC during the later period, almost similar to today. The rainforest not only survived but also diversified during and after this global warming phase,” said Arpita Samanta, a former PhD student at IIT Kharagpur currently Assistant Professor at Asutosh College, Calcutta and the lead author of the paper.

An extinct fly preserved in tree amber of Vastan (photo courtesy Dr. H.S. Rana, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow)

“What helped the rainforest’s survival? We critically looked at the rainfall pattern and found that the warming intensified the rainfall and that possibly brought down the temperature. We call it rainfall buffered temperature. The increased rainfall and lowered temperature sustained these ancient rainforests of western India,” said Dr. Melinda K Bera, an isotope expert who painstakingly developed the novel clay based thermometer and a co-author.

“The Vastan record is unique in many ways. This is the first record of how tropical rainforest responded to elevated levels of CO₂ and global warming in the past. The only other available record is from Neotropical South America. Vastan data shows that globally tropical plant community responded in tandem. Second, the increased rainfall during this super greenhouse earth exactly supports the IPCC prediction of intensified precipitation regime in case of a future extreme 4^oC warming of the planet. Vastan is an ancient analogue of what our future greenhouse earth can be. Fossil fuel emission has increased the CO₂ from pre-industrial level of 280 ppm to ~421 ppm in 2024. Climate models suggest that a doubling of CO₂ will intensify the atmospheric circulation and consequently the rainfall. Nature already did experiment in the past that has lessons for us to learn. Many experts believe that the climate change due to such fast rate of global warming is now irreversible and collapse of rainforest or ocean biosphere is just imminent. The Vastan record shows that there may be some hope. At least the rain forest may take the heat stress and survive,” added Prof. Sarkar.

Reference: The Temperature-Precipitation Duel and Tropical Greening during the Early Eocene Greenhouse Episode by Samanta A. et al., Global and Planetary Change, Available online 16 October 2024, 104603:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818124002509

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By : Prof. Anindya Sarkar, Department of Geology and Geophysics, IIT Kharagpur
Email: sarkaranindya@hotmail.com

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IIT Kharagpur Researchers Aids to Green Construction to Reduce Global Warming

Climate change and green and sustainable growth have found top most importance in India’s G20 presidency this year. Not only India, but all the leading economies have spoken in one voice on it. To revolutionize green construction, a team from IIT Kharagpur, Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, led by Prof. T.K Bhattacharyya, Scientist Dr. Jhimli Manna, Mr. Ayan Chatterjee, and Dr. Debmallya Das have developed and patented a Nano-Engineered Graphene derivative to reduce clinker factor from cement as well as concrete which can save the CO2 emission upto 25% annually. In addition, it will help to reduce the cost of cement production by approximately 2000 crore INR annually for the leading cement manufacturers whose annual production volume is 120 million tons. This is mainly achieved by reducing the cost incurred due to clinker production and energy consumption, with an added advantage of green taxation.

Cement Industry is the second major contributor of CO2 emission [8%] which leads to global warming with more than 4.4 billion tons produced every year, a number that is expected to grow to 5.5 billion by 2050. This is due to the clinker production which is the main component of strength for cement. But we cannot essentially remove the clinker as lower clinker means lower strength. Hence the major challenge in developing green cement for all cement companies across the globe lies in reducing the clinker without compromising the strength of cement.

Nano-Engineered Graphene derivative contains a unique product fingerprint which helps in physical removal of clinker, enhancing strength by 25%. It also reduces water to cement ratio leading to water conservation specially beneficial for water starved areas. The product can be easily produced in large scale, hence can be seamlessly integrated into the existing industrial process flow, downsizing energy consumption. The nanoengineered graphene reinforced cement and concrete reduces crack propagation, enhances durability and resilience with lesser curing time without disrupting the current operating process. It can cater to the need of PPC, OPC, and slag based cement industries. The researchers have successfully reduced clicker in industrial setting by up to 25% without compromising strength.

“The CO2 emission during cement production increased steeply by 1.8% per year during 2015-2020. In this scenario, we must decarbonize its production to reduce the carbon footprint for a greener future and meet the commitment to deliver Net Zero Emission by 2050. Almost all the national and international cement producing giants have focused their efforts in developing green cement using different strategies. A few of them have used clinker reduction strategies but till date none of them have declared a cement composition with physically reduced clinker which is the need of the hour. In this scenario, this technology is a breakthrough in revolutionizing green construction,” remarked Prof. T K Bhattacharyya, who is the professor at Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, and head of Advanced Technology Development Centre, IIT Kharagpur.

Microelectronics and MEMS Laboratory
Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

The production of cement is the most carbon-intensive part which involves using fossil fuels to heat a mixture of limestone and clay to more than 1,400 °C in a kiln. When limestone (calcium carbonate) is heated, roughly 600 kilograms of carbon dioxide is released for every ton of cement produced.

The product has already been validated from two places. Firstly, it is tested in laboratory at the Civil Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur and then MVP has been validated at the industrial testing laboratories of one of the major cement producing companies. A patent has also been filed and published.

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Contact Person: Prof. Tarun Kanti Bhattacharyya, IIT Kharagpur
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International Workshop on Biodiversity & Climate Change

We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and we are the last generation that can do something about it. We only get one home, one planet, there is no plan B. The climate has changed, we have changed, our tolerance and habits have changed. Biodiversity is our most valuable asset but least appreciated resource. Despite our many advances, our environment is still threatened by a range of problems including global climate change, energy dependency on unsustainable fossil fuels and loss of biodiversity. Therefore, there is a need to create an awareness about maintaining ecology among the masses and address the graving concerns that pose a threat to the natural habit of human beings.

On the lines of creating awareness about biodiversity and climate change, the 3^rd International Workshop on Biodiversity and Climate Change (BDCC-2023) was organized by the Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere, and Land Sciences (CORAL) at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur on the rising diminishment over ecological disruptions. The four-day programme including field trips to Sundarbans and Similipal Biosphere Reserve was attended by over 230 participants who arrived at the IIT Kharagpur campus on 15^th February. The Inaugural session was organized at Kalidas Auditorium on 17^th February 2023 in the august presence by eminent Professors and Scientists comprising of Dr. M Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD; Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. V P Singh, Texas A&M University, USA; Dr. S Behera, Director of Application Laboratory, JAMSTEC, Japan; Prof. B Pani, Dean of Colleges, University of Delhi; Dr. T Meloth, Director, NCPOR, MoES; Prof. S K Dube, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. K Kumar, Chairman CORAL and Prof. M D Behera, Organizing Secretary BDCC – 2023.

Prof. K Kumar, Chairman of BDCC-2023 welcomed the delegates on the dias, followed by lighting of the auspicious lamp by Dr. M Mohapatra and Prof V K Tewari in the presence of other dignitaries followed by a recitation of national anthem by a few students from Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Kharagpur. Dr. M D Behera, the Organizing Secretary provided an overview of the event with connection to the past two BDCC workshops and highlighted on the GOI Net Zero targets and nature-based climate solutions.

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur remarked, “If we look at the nature closely, every species is a masterpiece, exquisitely adapted to the particular environment in which it has has survived. I feel honored and proud to witness the 3rd International Workshop on Biodiversity and Climate Change (BDCC-2023) organized by CORAL at IIT Kharagpur. Biodiversity forms the backbone of any Nation’s prosperity and development. India is bestowed with immense biological wealth in its different habitats and they provide various ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, food provision etc. However, with climate change crisis exacerbating biodiversity losses and shifts in ecosystems dynamics, it is the need of the hour to adopt multifaceted mitigation and adaptation measures for ecosystem restoration and sustainable development.”

Prof. S K Dube deliberated on the genesis of CORAL and its journey in the frontier era of climate change education and research. Prof. B Pani explained the compliance of the National Education Policy with climate studies, while Dr. T Meloth appraised on climate change footprints on the 3^rd pole. Dr. S Behera emphasized on the prediction of monsoon and its impact on the economy in terms of crop yield and diseases like malaria. Prof. V P Singh highlighted the importance of water resources and its conservation in the era of changing climate. A pheno-meteorological observation tower installed in Similipal Biosphere Reserve was e-inaugurated by Dr. M Mohapatra in presence of Prof. V K Tewari; Dr. B K Bhattacharya and Dr. C P Singh, Scientists from Space Application Centre (SAC-ISRO), Ahmedabad.

The workshop started with four tutorials including (i) Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) using Machine Learning (ML), (ii) Soft Techniques in Environmental Geochemistry and Sediment Analysis, (iii) Geomatics and Data Analytics using Open Source – Google Earth Engine (GEE), and (iv) A Hierarchy of Glacier Models on 16^th February with hands-on training by the Research Scholars of CORAL. Participants including students and young scientists from various international, national, and state institutes also attended the tutorials.

India is a very committed towards tackling the effects of climate change and has promoted and enacted various initiatives. India has tapped the potential of nature-based solutions to achieve net zero targets and uphold its commitment to the Paris Agreement. India’s commitment towards achieving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents through additional forest and tree cover, Mission LiFE, Honourable Prime Minister’s ‘Panchamrit’ or five-fold declarations project our stance for circular and sustainable economic development,” remarked Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur.

The workshop accommodated seven technical sessions such as Biodiversity and Land Cover Dynamics; Geomatics and Data Analytics; Forest and Agricultural Resource & Biotechnology; Extreme Weather Events and Natural Hazards; Global Cryosphere and The Himalayas; Biogeochemistry- Terrestrial and Marine; Nature-based Solution and Net-Zero Targets. The technical sessions were conducted in parallel in three halls with three keynote talks in each technical session by eminent scientists, who also co-chaired the sessions.

The first plenary session was chaired by Prof V P Singh, wherein Dr. M Mohapatra, Mr. D Ray, PCCF and CWLW, WB state and Dr. S Behera talked on ‘Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events’, ‘Climate threats to Sunderbans Mangroves’ and ‘Monsoon Climate and Food Security’ respectively. The plenary session-II was chaired by Prof B Pani, wherein Dr. E Sharma, Ex-DDG, ICIMOD and Dr. T Meloth and Dr. C Biradar, Country Director, CIFOR-ICRAF, Delhi talked on ‘Himalayan responses to changing climate’, ‘Climatic responses of polar regions’, and ‘Agroforestry interventions towards food security in the warming world’. The plenary session-III was chaired by Prof. S K Dube, wherein Dr. S Nayak, Former Secretary MOES, GOI); Dr. A Orr, British Antarctic Survey, UK; Dr. D H Bromwich, Ohio State University, USA and Dr. Kyle Clem, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, deliberated on a wide range of topics with respect to climate actions in different spheres.

“All these key policy decisions and initiatives clearly demonstrate that our efforts for climate change mitigation should begin at the grassroot level starting from an individual and become unified as a massive wave for the common goal of preserving our planet. Being blessed with lush green campus, our staff and students of IIT Kharagpur have a plethora of opportunities to create a better world. We are proud to have undertaken different projects to enhance and maintain IIT-KGP campus a green campus. With our vision being – Dedicated to the service of the Nation, we seek to impart value based knowledge in addition to academic curriculum to our students in order to transform them into future leaders of tomorrow. This International workshop is a critical step in that direction which combines both traditional as well as modern fields of science. I congratulate Dr. Mukunda Dev Behera and the entire team for organizing this great event. I strongly encourage the researchers and participants to take full advantage of this workshop,”

stated Prof. V K Tewari.

The keynote talks of each technical session were oriented towards sustainable development perspectives. The participants presented their works in terms of rapid-oral and standard-oral as per specific format and allotted time. A few awards were adjudged from each session by the session co-chairs and the awardees were given a certificate and momento in the Valedictory session on 18^th Feb 2023. Field trips to Sunderbans and Siilipal Biosphere Reserve on 19^th and 20^th February. Several deliberations in the event have led to better understanding of how can we better understand feedbacks between climate change and biodiversity, how do we maintain a balance between bioresource management and socio-economic development, how do cryospheric changes in polar regions and high mountains affect biodiversity, water cycle and global climate etc. Forecasting and preparing for natural hazards and extreme weather events, understanding the intricacies between terrestrial and marine bio-geochemical cycles, geomatics perspective on spatial biodiversity and ways to achieve the net-zero targets through nature-based solutions were among the other topics of discussion.

Healthy ecosystems constitute healthy planet. In this connection, ecosystem restoration is a win-win strategy that is crucial to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate targets of the Paris Agreement. The on-going climate change is unequivocally anthropogenic and together with other stressors like deforestation, land degradation, biological invasion, etc. has resulted in species losses and shifts in landscape dynamics. The carbon cycle and the water cycle, arguably the two most important large-scale processes for life on Earth, depend on biodiversity at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels and can yield feedbacks to climate change.

Inputs by: Prof. M D Behera, CORAL, IIT Kharagpur
Email: mdbehera@coral.iitkgp.ac.in

Edited by : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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Devastating Aftermath of Cyclones

Isotope studies by IIT Kharagpur and Academia Sinica, Taiwan scientists shed light on how the cyclones sustain their energy.

Cyclones are increasingly becoming perilous to the coastal populations of the subcontinent. Climate change due to global warming, projects that the frequency of category 4 and 5 storms (60 to >70 m/s sustained wind speed) will be doubled by the end of the 21st century. However, the question remains: why some cyclones are devastating while others are not? What controls the intensity of cyclonic winds and rains? Cyclones are gigantic vortex, 500-700 km in diameter and 20 km in height, which form when sea surface temperature is higher than normal. They get their energy from evaporation of the underlying seawaters, forming spirally rotating rain bands around the centre called eye where the winds are strongest. The latent heat released during conversion of vapor to rain acts as fuel and the raining vortex moves on. However, one critical question has been bothering scientists: what is the exact mechanism and the source that supply moisture to the cyclone? Is it evaporation alone from the sea beneath, or the pre-existing atmospheric vapors?

The scientists from IIT Kharagpur and Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan have found the exact mechanism and the source that supply moisture to the cyclones. The research analyses the devastating aftermath of cyclones in respect to Cycle Sitrang which made its landfall on Bangladesh on 25 October 2022 . The study indicates that the cyclone movement through the atmosphere continuously scavenges the existing vapour over the vortex cross-section much like a moving suction pump and provide the first experimental evidence of a theoretical model.

Prof. Anindyo Sarkar
Dept. of Geology & Geophysics
IIT Kharagpur

“West Pacific Ocean waters are the warmest in the world, producing nearly 30% cyclones of the world that routinely devastate Taiwan, China and Japan. There cannot be any better place to study the internal mechanism of these cyclones. In Chinese the cyclones are called ‘Typhoons’ (daaihfùng) meaning “great wind”. We have studied four such typhoons, named Nepartak, Meranti, Malakas and Megi of category 4/5, which devastated Taiwan in the year 2016. Billions of dollars of properties and lives were damaged in the due course which formed basis of this study. Our study indicates that the cyclone movement through the atmosphere continuously scavenges the existing vapour over the vortex cross-section much like a moving suction pump and provide the first experimental evidence of a theoretical model suggested by Russian atmospheric scientists,” said Sarkar” said Prof. Anindya Sarkar, Department of Geology & Geophysics and co-author of the research paper that has just been published in prestigious, ‘Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres of American Geophysical Union.’

Prof. Mao-Chang Liang
Academia Sinica
Taipei, Taiwan

“Flying experimental airplanes through the typhoons have been attempted but is pretty dangerous. To circumvent this, we placed a mass spectrometer on top of a tall building to continuously measure the isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in the vapor as these typhoons approached Taiwan. This technique provided us real-time variation inside typhoons every ten minutes as it was raining and vapour compositions changed. Since both cyclone frequency and intensities are increasing due to on-going climate change, this observation will be very important while studying the tropical cyclones that recurrently hit both India and Taiwan/Japan region. It also opened up avenues for future collaboration between the two countries,” stated Prof. Mao-Chang Liang of Academia Sinica and the collaborator of the study.

Sourendra Bhattacharya,
Former Visiting Professor
IIT Kharagpur

Sourendra Bhattacharya, a former visiting Professor at IIT Kharagpur and the lead author of the paper cited,”Cyclones are extremely dynamic systems and rainfall as high as ~150 mm per hour is very common. As the cyclone moves, shedding of this enormous amount of rain causes a progressive reduction in the ratio of the isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in the leftover vapor mass. We tracked this magnitude of reduction, calculated and modelled to see how much rains were scavenged by these moving cyclones.”

Typhoon Nepartak (left) and Megi (right) those devastated Taiwan in 2016 just like cyclone Amphan that struck Indian east coast in 2020 caused death, misery and destruction.

The mass spectrometer (right) that continuously measured isotopes on the top of Academia Sinica building (left) as the typhoons passed over.

Details of the paper: Vapor isotope probing of typhoons invading the Taiwan region in 2016 by S.K. Bhattacharya, Anindya Sarkar, Mao-Chang Liang. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, American Geophysical Union.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JD036578

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Contact Person: Prof. Prof. Anindyo Sarkar, Department of Geology & Geophysics, IIT Kharagpur
Email: anindya@gg.iitkgp.ac.in

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IIT Kharagpur unveiled the increasing ozone pollution in Antarctica

IIT Kharagpur researchers revealed significant increase of ozone pollution in the Antarctic troposphere for the past 25 years, which is a concern as the region is far from the industries and continental emission sources.

A recent scientific study analysed the significant increase of Surface Ozone and Tropospheric Ozone in Antarctica for the past 25 years. The research findings were supported by surface-based and ozonesonde measurements in Antarctica.

“The increasing trend in ozone pollution across Antarctica would have a profound impact on the future climate of one of the most climate-sensitive regions on the Earth, as tropospheric ozone has warming feedback to the Earth’s climate, and that can accelerate melting of sea-ice, changes in water masses, and damages to the ecosystem”, said Prof Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, the lead researcher and Assistant Professor of Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere, and Land sciences at IIT Kharagpur.

The research findings are published in Environmental Science and Technology Journal of the American Chemical Society (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c08491) on June 16, 2021. In this regards, American Chemical Society made the press release on the same date (https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2021/acs-presspac-june-16-2021/ozone-pollution-has-increased-in-antartica.html).

The increasing pollution in a remote region with no industries, no significant population, very limited anthropogenic activities and about 6500 km away from the equator, is a serious concern and suggests substantial anthropogenic pollution across the latitudes. Dominant sources of ozone are both natural and from human-related sources. The researchers compiled the ozone data measured between 1992 and 2018 at ground level and through the atmosphere, from the lower atmosphere into the ozone layer, at eight stations across Antarctica.

“Making measurements and monitoring the environment at remote locations such as Antarctica is very important because of its remoteness and constant clean air there making it easier to detect even slight changes related to global scale, and thus can expose first signals of global change”, added Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, the IIT Kharagpur Director.

“The increasing trend in ozone pollution is significant even after accounting for the natural variability, and we find substantial amounts of ozone pollution is being transported from neighbouring regions,” said Mr. Pankaj Kumar, the research scholar from the Centre of Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Science of IIT Kharagpur as well as the another lead author of the paper.

The authors acknowledged the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Education (MoE), and Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) for facilitating the study. They also thanked Dr M Ravichandran, the Director of National Centre for Ocean and Polar Research Goa, India for his encouragement and support for this study.

Media Contact: Prof Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, Assistant Professor

Email: jayan@coral.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. no.: +91-9475472847

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

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IIT Kharagpur Study Predicts River Basin-wise Agricultural Droughts-North India Shows High Vulnerability

With inputs from Rituparna Chakraborty

Highlights:

The study predicts future status climate change-induced agricultural droughts across India.
More intense droughts in North, North-East and Central India are expected as compared to South India.
About 20 and 50% of the area in India is expected to face extreme and moderate agricultural droughts, respectively, by the end of the 21st century.

Farmers in India’s north, north-east and central regions may have to be more cautious of agricultural droughts in the future – reveals IIT Kharagpur study. The data shows a geographically contrasting change in future drought patterns that indicates more intense agricultural drought in north, north-east, and central India as compared to south India due to changing climate.

The study conducted by research scholar Mayank Suman from the School of Water Resources and Dr. Rajib Maity, Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kharagpur has been published in the Journal of Water and Climate Change. The researchers have identified vulnerable basins, out of a total of 226 sub-basins across India, considering the future agricultural drought. The area under drought is also expected to increase which might lead to about 20 to 50% of mainland India suffering from extreme to moderate agricultural drought conditions respectively, by the end of this century.

Trend of SSMI series for different future periods. The maps show the basin-wise trend of agricultural droughts in entire ‘future’ period upto 2100 and three epochs: E1 (2006-2035), E2 (2036-2070), and E3 (2071-2100) for the worst climate change scenario.

“Sub-basins in Northern India are expected to have a longer time under drought conditions followed by sub-basins in central India. Sub-basins in the Gangetic plain were also observed to exhibit high vulnerability to extreme drought conditions in future,” said Mayank Suman.

The recent studies on meteorological drought suggest more intense and frequent drought events due to changing climate.

“With climate change, air temperature is expected to increase, resulting in a drying tendency in soil moisture and streamflow along with higher and intense precipitation. The prediction of an increase in the area under drought has been made due to these probable changes. Many studies suggest that drought is expected to become more severe and frequent, and the areas under drought are expected to increase with local variation in the future,” remarked Prof. Rajib Maity.

With India’s steep dependence on agriculture and allied economies [18% of GDP, Source: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India, 2021], monitoring, assessment, and prediction of agricultural drought are of immense importance.

“With the extreme drought conditions having a possible adverse effect on food production in identified regions, policymakers would find our findings useful for future planning and preparedness in terms of agricultural productivity,” added Prof. Maity.

The researchers predicted the drought status using the wavelet-based drought temporal consequence modelling of meteorological drought with the best performing bias-corrected Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) simulations, selected by Multi-Criteria Decision- Making frameworks. They used the Standardized Soil Moisture Index as the drought characterizing index alongwith most of the existing studies on meteorological droughts are analyzed using the indices, such as Standardized Precipitation Index, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, and the Palmer Drought Severity Index.

About IIT Kharagpur: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is a higher educational institute known globally for its graduate output and affordable technology innovations. Set up in 1951 in a detention camp as an Institute of National Importance, the Institute is ranked among the top five in India and has been awarded Institute of Eminence by the Govt. of India in 2019. The key areas of research of IIT Kharagpur are Affordable Healthcare Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Transportation, Precision Agriculture and Food Technology, Cyberphysical Systems, Ecology & Environment, Mining, Water Resources and Architecture. The Institute is engaged in several international and national mission projects and ranks significantly in research output including 50-100 IPR filed annually and about 2000 research publications in top journals and conferences. At present, the Institute has about 750 full-time equivalent faculty members, more than 14000 students and over 70000 Alumni. For more information visit: www.iitkgp.ac.in

Media Contact: Dr. Rajib Maity, Associate Professor, Email: rajib@civil.iitkgp.ac.in, Ph: +91-3222-283442

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Climate Change Signals from North-Eastern India, the Wettest Place on Earth

In a recent study, researchers from IIT Kharagpur have observed a significant change in the rainfall in the northeast in general and specifically at the wettest place on Earth, Cherrapunji-Mawsynram.

The researchers observed rainfall changes in the past century (1901–2019) over the wettest place on the Earth and unveiled the first evidence for the signals of climate change and anthropogenic influence on rainfall changes in the region.

Image: The figure shows the study region and rainfall received at Cherrapunji and Mawsynram in the past 50 years. The spatial change in rainfall shifted the wettest place on the Earth from Cherrapunji to Mawsynram in the early 1980s.

The analysis of 119 years of rainfall data at 17 stations in Northeast India revealed that most of the stations show negative trends in rainfall, the highest in the summer monsoon and the smallest in the winter. A clear shift in the rainfall pattern is observed in the mid-1970s. This abrupt shift in the rainfall can be attributed to the climate shift that occurred in the Pacific Ocean.

The large variability and rapid warming associated with climate change in the equatorial Indian Ocean and associated atmospheric circulation patterns, and the changes in land use/land cover are the main reasons for the inter-annual variability and negative trends in the rainfall in the northeast region, particularly at Cherrapunji and Shillong.

The seasonal rainfall cycles at these locations are also found to be changed one month ahead as compared to that before 1973. The spatial shift in the rainfall from Cherrapunji to Mawsynram in the early 1980s can also be viewed as a part of the above-mentioned temporal change and the westward movement of rainfall there.

The expansion of western subtropical Pacific high is another reason for this rainfall pattern change.

“The analyses uncover signals of regional climate change in India. Since the changes in the rainfall amount would affect drinking water, irrigation, agriculture, energy production and the economy of our country, this study cautions us about the impact of imminent climate change in our country,” says researcher Dr. J Kuttippurath, Assistant Professor, Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL).

Northeast India houses about 64% forest, 30% under the Brahmaputra valley and the rest has steep slopes, hills and mountains. The region has the highest vegetation cover in India and is one of the 18 biodiversity hotspots of the world; indicating the importance of the region in terms of its greenery and climate change sensitivity. Agriculture and allied activities form the backbone of the economy in the region, where more than 60% of the crop area is under rain-fed agriculture.

“The northeast region is well known as the wettest region of the world because it receives nearly 2000 mm of rainfall annually, which is about three times higher than the mean annual rainfall of India. Furthermore, the population of this region mainly depends on agriculture and horticulture, which is fed by the seasonal rainfall and therefore, any change in the rainfall would alter the economy and affect the well-being of the society,” remarked Prof. Madan Kumar Jha, Professor, Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering.

Citation J Kuttippurath et al 2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 024018, Journal: Environmental Research Letters [Impact Factor: 6.09], DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abcf78

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About IIT Kharagpur: Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur is a higher educational institute known globally for its graduate output and affordable technology innovations. Set up in 1951 in a detention camp as an Institute of National Importance, the Institute is ranked among the top five in India and has been awarded Institute of Eminence by the Govt. of India in 2019. The key areas of research of IIT Kharagpur are Affordable Healthcare Technologies, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Transportation, Precision Agriculture and Food Technology, Cyberphysical Systems, Ecology & Environment, Mining, Water Resources and Architecture. The Institute is engaged in several international and national mission projects and ranks significantly in research output including 50-100 IPR filed annually and about 2000 research publications in top journals and conferences. At present, the Institute has about 750 full-time equivalent faculty members, more than 14000 students and over 70000 Alumni. For more information visit: www.iitkgp.ac.in

Study Reveals Southward Shift of Precipitation Extremes over South Asia

Has your monsoon experience across India changed over the years?

The reason could be blamed on shifts in the spatio-temporal pattern of monsoon. In a recent study published in Scientific Reports by Nature Publishing Group, IIT Kharagpur researchers reveal that the pattern of monsoon and daily extreme rainfall is changing in India with more extremes expected over southern India and Himalayan foothills. They further predicted a continued southward shift of precipitation extremes over South Asia.

The researchers have studied data of Indian Summer Monsoon precipitation for close to five decades, 1971 – 2017 (base period: 1930-1970). The data shows more increase in the magnitude of extreme precipitation over South India (~18.5 mm/day for the worst climate change scenario) compared to Northern and Central India (~2.7 mm/day).

“Our analysis of precipitation from the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment, indicates a southward shift of precipitation extremes over South Asia. For instance, the Arabian Sea, South India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia are expected to have the maximum increase to about 18.5 mm per day for an RCP8.5 scenario in mean extreme precipitation,” said lead researcher Prof. Rajib Maity from the Dept. of Civil Engineering.

Refer to the journal paper: Suman, M., Maity, R. Southward shift of precipitation extremes over south Asia: Evidences from CORDEX data. Sci Rep 10, 6452 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-63571-x

PhD student Mayank Suman, co-author added, “We based our predictions on average precipitation for the days with more than 99th percentile of daily precipitation. Our study showed a contrasting feature for North and Central India, and Tibetan Plateau with relatively less increase, to only about 2.7 mm per day for RCP8.5 scenario.”

Talking about the possible reason behind such a significant phenomenon, Prof. Maity remarked on the intensification of large-scale circulation phenomena over the tropical Indian Ocean (known as Indian Ocean Dipole) which could be leading to the contrasting trends across large regions in India. As a result of this intensification the Indian monsoon is expected to be enhanced across the country. The prediction is based on the analysis of air temperature at 850 mb and precipitable water for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5.

“Our convergence analysis along with the moisture flux show a change in the direction of the South-West Monsoon winds blowing towards the east over the Indian Ocean. This directional change will intensify the already observed precipitation contrast in future between South and North India, and cause more extreme precipitation events in countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.” remarked Prof. Maity

What could be the socio-economic impact of such change, particularly in the context of India?

Prof. Virendra Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, who has extensively worked with both industrial and rural sectors opined on getting ready for the monsoonal shifts based on predicted timelines and precipitation volume.

“South Asia, as we know, despite advances in irrigation systems, is highly dependent on the monsoons. Results of this study will be useful to the designers of water infrastructure and agricultural communities, especially in the southern parts of India and Himalayan foothills, to prompt a possible change in design criteria and agricultural practices including cropping pattern,” he said.

Media Coverage:

Hindustan Times	Financial Express	Danik Jagran
Deccan Herald	Outlook	Navbharat Times
Yahoo News	Asian Age	Deccan Chronicle
Nature India	The Weather Channel

Project information: Prof. Rajib Maity, Dept. of Civil Engineering,rajib@civil.iitkgp.ac.in;

Institute Information: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in;

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in;

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/;

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Earth Day 2020 e-Celebration

IIT Kharagpur is organizing the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Earth Day through an online visual exhibition and competition.

About Earth Day

Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Earth Day 1970 gave a voice to an emerging public consciousness about the state of our planet. Today, Earth Day is observed across the globe by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and lead to policy changes. Earth Day aims to channelize the energy, excitement, and youth initiatives towards climate change. It also empowers individuals with the information, the tools, the messaging and the communities needed to make an impact and drive change.

The Unique Celebration of Digitized Earth Day 2020 at IIT Kharagpur

The year 2020 has started its journey not in the usual manner. While February – April are the months signified with financial year-end, new business, school terms, annual examination, new class, this year we are homebound. With the approaching Earth Day, this may be an opportunity to introspect our actions and engage our time effectively in developing ideas that can inspire a better present and future.

IIT Kharagpur brings the opportunity to celebrate Earth Day 2020 in a digital mode with an art and creatives exhibition-cum-competition (Drawing/Painting, Poster, Photo Story and Video) in electronic mode, extensively using social media platforms. The Institute invites participation from all its current students and also students who are studying in various schools with establishment on the campus.

Earth Day 2020 Theme: Climate Action

The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities — of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary. Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.

Sub Themes:

Biosphere
Impact of Climate change
Sustainable use of natural resources
Water Management and Conservation
Soil Conservation
Ocean resources (Living & Non-living resources)
Solar Energy
Conservation of rivers and water
Organic Farming / Drip Irrigation
Sustenance of various ecosystems
Deforestation & Afforestation and their significance
Conservation of Endangered Species
Biodiversity
Atmospheric Ocean
Polar Science
Air and Vehicular Pollution
Impact of Environment on Agriculture
Disaster Management
Hygiene & Cleanliness

Who can participate?

The Institute invites participation from all its current students and also students who are studying in various schools on the campus.

Group I: Students of IIT Kharagpur – all levels
Group II: Students from VIII – XI
Group III: Students from IV-VII
Group IV: Students from I – III

Submission Information:

All submissions to be made to media.iitkgp@gmail.com.

In case you are unable to submit due to file size, please upload the creative on a cloud server and share a link of the downloadable file with us.

Submissions Formats:

Drawing / Painting / Sketching (JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, PDF)
Poster (High-resolution JPG, PNG, TIF, BMP, PDF)
Photo Story (PPT)
Video, VLog (MOV, MP4)

Submission Deadline: April 7, 2020

Selected creatives will be displayed on social media platforms of IIT Kharagpur. All participants will receive participation certificates. The creatives judged among the top three (group and category wise) would be awarded prize money.

Please note all creative compositions should be original. Entries will be disqualified if found plagiarized. For more information write to shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in.

Student Collaborators: Vision Prabaho

What’s Heating India?

Green-less Urbanization leading to India’s Heat Islands

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An IIT Kharagpur study confirmed recently that the intensity of urban heat islands is positive in most cities (up to 2°C) in all seasons during day and night. The researchers from the Institute’s Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL) and Department of Architecture and Regional Planning have found that most big cities of India with population more than one million, have positive heat island intensity during daytime while simultaneously showing an increasing trend in the nighttime urban heat island intensity. The study ‘Anthropogenic forcing exacerbating the urban heat islands in India‘ has been published in the international Elsevier publication Journal of Environmental Management (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.110006) .

The increase in global surface temperature or global warming is a great concern, especially the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomena which is among the major consequences of the alteration of the earth’s surface due to human activities. The relatively warmer temperatures in urban areas compared to their suburban areas has potential health hazards, such as mortality due to high temperatures and heatwaves, and pollution in urban areas, opine the researchers Sarath Raj, Prof. Saikat Kumar Paul, Prof. Arun Chakraborty and Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath.

The key finding in the study is the role of anthropogenic activities in increasing the urban temperature in India. As per a World Bank report, approximately a third of the total population in India (~7% of the total world population) lived in cities in 2018. The trend shows an increase of urbanization by almost 4% in the last decade, meaning people have moved away from rural areas to find work and make a living in the cities. To accommodate the additional needs of this increasing population the cities have witnessed some of the major human activities pertaining to changes in land use and land cover through a decrease in green cover, increase in impervious surface area and infrastructural development. In addition, the UHI situation demands more energy (e.g. fans and air-conditioners) that would trigger greenhouse gas emissions. These have led to modify the temperature of a city, remarks said lead author of the paper Sarath Raj.

“Our study is a detailed and careful analysis of urban heat islands of India which is the difference between urban and surrounding rural land surface temperatures, across all seasons in 44 major cities of India, for the period 2001-2017. For the first time we have found evidence of mean daytime Surface UHI Intensity (SUHII) going up to 2 °C for most cities, as analysed from satellite temperature measurements in monsoon and post-monsoon periods,” said Prof. Arun Chakraborty.

These data are also supported by the analysis of aerosols, night lights, precipitation and vegetation in the study regions. In areas like Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati etc where the urban areas are surrounded by large vegetated areas in suburban regions there is an enhanced cooling effect on surface in suburban areas during day as against cities like Delhi, Jaipur and cities in arid regions.

“Evidence from our study suggests that more green spaces within the city and its boundary could reduce the temperature in the city and its neighbourhood. Conservation and expansion of vegetated areas, and preserving water bodies in and around cities could be an effective strategy to curb the effects of urban heat islands. The construction of green buildings and selection of materials for buildings and other infrastructure such as eco-friendly materials could also prove to be crucial to mitigate the effects of heat islands,” said co-author Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath.

An earlier study published in Scientific Reports journal in 2017 had pointed out the correlation in UHI and the location of the smart cities proposed to be developed. In a global warming context, because the temperature is increasing across the latitudes, the background warming could add even more heat in the urban areas. Therefore, anthropogenic activities that augment the greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric pollution should also be controlled to counter the adverse effects of urban heat islands. Keeping in mind India’s strong commitment towards the Climate Action, despite focus towards urbanization, such studies shall aid the planning and management of urban areas by giving insights about the effects of nature and intensity of development, land cover and land use mix and the structure of future smart city projects.