BHUBANESWAR: India will very soon have the first-ever Innovation Centre for Climate Change (ICCC) to cover the Bay of Bengal. It will come up on the Konark-Puri road. The Centre will function under the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar (IITB). The Bay of Bengal Coastal Observatory (BOBCO) as it has been named will study the behaviour of the Bay of Bengal. With the completion of the observatory, the country will be able to forecast extreme weather conditions and collect data about the ocean behaviour and numerous other details like the physical, chemical, biological and Geo-scientific data. “All this information will be instrumental in preparing a model for understanding cyclone. We would have understood the 1999 cyclone better if we had this observatory back then,” said Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences Prof Prem Chand Pandey. Its working will be different from the Meteorological Department (MET) as the ICCC will look into the causes behind the occurrences in the ocean while MET department records the ocean behaviour and gives continuous information. The ICCC will come up along with the School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Science (SEOCS) under IITB. The SEOCS, which will come up at Arugul, will be headed by Prof Subhashish Tripathy. The State Government had allotted around 936 acre land for the construction of the SEOCS. It also recently allotted around 75 acres for setting up of the observatory. “The work on the ICCC will start as soon as the land is handed over to the IITB. Getting such a huge land and that too strategically placed to suit the needs of the observatory will be very difficult,” explained Tripathy. The students of SEOCS will be involved in the working of the ICCC. “We will bring the best available equipment for the ICCC. For the setting up of the observatory, IITB is working closely with University of Massachusetts and University of South Hampton. They will also conduct the Ocean Instrumentation Training Programme to train people with the advanced instruments that will be used in the ICCC. “There will be around 12 faculties initially, but with the gradual growth of the school, more and more experienced faculties will be brought in,” said Tripathy. The recruitment process has already begun. The institute also has ambitious plans to conduct research in the field of land, ocean and atmosphere, added Pandey.
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