Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun/Delhi, 11 Sep: Satpal Maharaj, Uttarakhand Minister of Tourism, Religious Affairs, Culture, Public Works, Irrigation, Panchayati Raj, Rural Construction, and Watershed Management, paid a courtesy call on Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, today.
During the meeting, he requested that the scientists from the Meteorological Department and the Ministry of Earth Sciences be engaged to conduct studies of naturally formed glaciers and large lakes located in the sensitive and high-altitude regions of the Himalayas, so that potential future damage can be mitigated.
Maharaj said that in the country’s hilly and sensitive regions, natural disasters such as landslides, cloudbursts, and floods occur frequently. These severe incidents cause immense damage to the general public and put the lives of innocent beings at grave risk. Recently, sudden cloudbursts in several places in Uttarkashi, Pauri, and Chamoli districts of Uttarakhand, as well as in many parts of Himachal Pradesh, severely affected people’s lives, leaving them no time even to protect themselves. He emphasised that, if timely and accurate information about such disasters had been available, the damage could have been significantly reduced.
He added that while India already possesses advanced satellite technology and weather forecasting systems that can provide early warnings of heavy rainfall and natural disasters, there is a pressing need to strengthen and make this technology more precise. Hence, it is essential for scientists connected with the Meteorological Department and Earth Sciences to study the naturally formed glaciers and large lakes in the Himalayan and other sensitive high-altitude regions in order to prevent future calamities.
Maharaj stressed the urgent need to enhance satellite-based monitoring systems, ensure the immediate transmission of accurate information on cloudbursts and other disasters to state and local administrations, and improve the communication of warning messages to the general public through mobile networks, radio, TV, and other communication platforms. This, he said, is crucial for effectively tackling such grave crises in the future.
He requested Union Minister Bhupender Yadav to give special attention to this humanitarian issue and to direct the concerned departments to take swift and positive action at the earliest.
