Need to include Nepal for Himalayan Study

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 29

The Nepal earthquake has necessitated the need for expanding the scope of the Centre for Himalayan Study proposed in Uttarakhand by the Narendra Modi government to further encourage studies in the Himalayan region.

In the aftermath of the devastating Kedarnath natural disaster in 2013, the Union Ministry of Finance had in its budget for 2014-15 announced the setting up of the Centre for Himalayan Study in Uttarakhand with an initial outlay of Rs 100 crore.

Eminent geologists now feel the need for expanding the working of the proposed centre to the entire Himalayan region, including Nepal, for better data sharing between the two countries. A strong votary of a centre of excellence for central Himalayan studies, Padma Shree awardee Vijay Prasad Dimri, senior scientist at the CSIR National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies, says while the proposed Centre for Himalayan Study in Uttarakhand is a welcome move, there is a need to include Himalayan countries, particularly Nepal, in its domain to further enhance its capability in terms of geological information sharing.

“Tectonic boundaries are not political boundaries and thus whether it is Himalayan states in India or Nepal, geological information sharing holds much significance,” said Dimri. “So far, all studies are done separately by the two countries and even within India various institutions are carrying out their studies separately with little data sharing despite aspiring to reach the same goal,” he argued. He said a centre for Himalayan study with other Himalayan countries also in its mandate would serve the purpose well.

Dimri asserted that the centre could prove to be of immense help in carrying out palaeo-seismic studies to understand the history of earthquakes and the seismic hazard potential of the region.

Dimri, who was awarded Padma Shree in 2010 in the discipline of science and engineering, is the first Asian to get the Lorenz Award in American Geophysical Union in the field of non-linear geophysics in December 2007. He has also received the GP Chatterjee Award of Indian Science Congress Association, presented to him by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007. He is a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy.