Two Puneites figure in the long list of experts who have contributed to the IPCC in the area of climate change. The Indian government has taken special cognizance of these scientists and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has issued certificates “recognising their contribution.”

Two MeT officers from Pune — former deputy director general of meteorology and former director of long range forecasting of India Meteorological Department (IMD) Dr Vachaspati Thapliyal and programme manager for climate change studies at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Dr Krishna Kumar have bagged these certificates, thus sharing the Nobel prize honour.

Having recently collected these certificates, Dr Thapliyal, who took voluntary retirement in 2003 from IMD is happy to receive the recognition from the Prime Minister and also for the IPCC. His study on ‘Undulating trend in temperature rise over the last 100 years’ found a place in the assessment reports of the IPCC.

“Our team managed to gather temperature data of 100 years for the country and also found that there has been a half degree rise in temperature per century for the country,’’ said Thapliyal. He now delivers lectures on climate change as well as also helps his friends in the MeT department in research work. Thapliyal said there are several people working in the area of climate research and there is a need to work in a cohesive manner.

According to Dr Krishna Kumar, who has been contributing to the IPCC process by way of being a contributory author and also a member of the Indian delegation for several climate change workshops adds, it is a coveted honour from the Indian government.