PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Nainital
Senior scientists of Nainital-based Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) expressed concerns over increasing human interference in nature, spelling danger for humans. They warned that uncontrolled construction of buildings and roads in the ecologically delicate mountains must be stopped immediately or else things would be far worse in future. According to these experts, the soil of the mountains is already weak. When construction is done by cutting the mountain on a large scale, it reduces the water holding capacity of the soil. They also mentioned the increasing trend of local cloud formation at a relatively low altitude areas which suddenly bursts at one place with resultant heavy rain.
The meteorologist working for ARIES, Narendra Singh explained that construction work affects nature visibly as well as invisibly. “Every construction emits radiation which goes back into the atmosphere and increases the temperature. The average temperature of the area where more construction has taken place is found to be higher than that in the surrounding areas. This changes the pattern of cloud formation and rainfall,” he said, adding that if this did not stop now the coming years would see more and more incidents of cloudburst and landslides.
