Isro chief sounds climate alert

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief A S Kiran Kumar on Saturday sounded an alert on huge impending impact on the nation’s economy and environment due to increasing climate change in the eastern Himalayas.

He said this on the sidelines of the second convocation of the Assam Kaziranga University in Jorhat. “Climatic change is no longer a scientific curiosity, but a great challenge facing us as an environmental issue impacting economy, livelihood, health safety, agriculture, food production and many other dimensions,” Kumar said.

Kumar raised the issues of rising sea levels, contaminated coastal fresh water and reserves, and increase the risk of catastrophic flooding and a warming atmosphere and the melting of the Himalayas.