Centurion Town Faces Unprecedented Heat; People throng Riverside to Escape Heatwave
Gandhi Darang
Pasighat I July I 28:
Centurion town Pasighat has been severely hit by heat waves affecting the normal life for the last 4-5 days.
The people (young and old) throng to the riverside to escape from the scorching heat.
The temperature on Sunday rose upto 38 degree celsius affecting the normal life.
A local resident told this scribe that the heat was unbearable whole day and there was erratic electricity supply.
During a recent climate change conclave in Guwahati, Assam based environmental scientist Dr Partha Jyoti Das informed that this year the temperature of Pasighat once went upto 39.4 degree celsius which was 9.4 degree celsius higher than nornal temperature.
Dr. Das is currently an Executive Committee member of Aaranyak who is leading Water Climate and Hazard Division(WATCH) of Aaranyak.
He further told that heat waves are getting more intense in India, putting 80 percent of the country’s people in danger, which remains unaccounted for in its current climate vulnerability assessment and 90 percent of the country is in the danger zone from severe heat wave impact.
” If this impact is not addressed immediately, India can slow its progress towards sustainable development goal”, Dr Das said.
The heat waves in India and the Indian subcontinent become recurrent and long-lasting, it is high time that climate experts and policymakers reevaluate the metrics for assessing the country’s climate vulnerability, he said, adding current climate vulnerability assessments thus far may have been severely lacking in disclosing the actual impacts of climate change-induced heatwaves on India.
A senior resident of Pasighat said it is high time that every stake holders including the law maker, civil society member and academician come together to combat the climate change.
