All that was discussed in the house through the day
The warming of the Indian Ocean and more frequent El Nino events in future may lead to long-lasting heatwaves across India, Jitendra Singh, minister of state for science and technology and earth sciences, told the Lok Sabha.
In 2021, the average number of heatwaves was highest in Uttarakhand, followed by Rajasthan, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, Singh said.
The average temperature during the monsoon season has been rising for the last two decades, he added.
The tropical Indian Ocean has been warming rapidly over the last few decades, Singh told the Lok Sabha. He was referring to a recent climate assessment report of the ministry of earth sciences.
The average basin-wide sea surface temperature has been warming at a rate of 0.15 degrees Celcius/decade from 1951 to 2015.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Nagaland have shown a significant decrease in southwest monsoon rainfall in the last 30 years, Singh told the Lok Sabha.
At the same time, other states do not show any significant changes in southwest monsoon rainfall during the same period, he added.
A significant increasing trend is observed in parts of Saurashtra and Kutch, southeastern parts of Rajasthan, northern parts of Tamil Nadu and the northern parts of Andhra Pradesh, he added.
The adjoining areas of southwest Odisha, parts of Chhattisgarh, southwest Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur and Mizoram, Konkan and Goa and Uttarakhand have also marked an increase in rainfall.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has observed changes in rainfall patterns in different states and districts in the country in the last 30 years, Singh added. As a part of the assessment, 29 reports are published by the IMD.
The reports are also made available to the public on the website of IMD Pune, he said.
Coal India Ltd has dispatched 152.49 metric tonnes (MT) of coal to the power sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, surpassing all the previous highs of the same period, Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines told the Lok Sabha.
Similarly, Singareni Collieries Company Ltd dispatched 14.43 MT of coal to the power sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
A sum of Rs 68,463 crores is allocated for National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and National Disaster Mitigation Fund (NDMF) for 2021-22 to 2025-26, Nityanand Rai, minister of state in the ministry of home affairs, told the Rajya Sabha. It is allocated to NDRF and NDMF in the ratio 80:20.
Under NDMF, there is an earmarked allocation of Rs 1,500 crores for mitigation measures to prevent erosion for the award period. In addition, there is a dedicated allocation of Rs 1,000 crores under the recovery and reconstruction funding window of NDRF.
This fund will be used for the resettlement of displaced people affected by erosion, Rai said.
The 15th Finance Commission has recommended the creation of the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) at the national level.
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