Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) will soon set up a state-of-the-art laboratory in Munnar in collaboration with College of Engineering, Munnar to study the climate change scenario in South India, said faculties of IITM

The laboratory will be located in the high altitude of Munnar as it is the apt place for the study. The laboratory will be extremely beneficial in studying and analyzing pollution and the associated climate change, which are major concerns of the society now.

Sachin S Gunthe, an associate professor (civil engineering department) of IITM, who is instrumental in conducting the study, said College of Engineering Munnar has provided land for the laboratory inside the campus and its construction has already started. IITM will be spending on installations of the high end equipments required in the laboratory. IITM faculty members said the pollution monitoring laboratory will be first of its kind and around Rs 3 crore will be spent on procurement of equipments for the laboratory.

IIT M officials said it is important and relevant to study the pollution and related climate change pattern to design the future policies and to chalk strategies to deal with the problems that will emerge because of the climate change.

Gunthe said Munnar is very strategically located, being far from roads and urban areas; the data obtained will be compared with that obtained from urban areas to estimate the impact of increasing pollution on the regional climate of South India. Studies have already been performed on the campus of the College of Engineering, Munnar and so far three papers have been published in top quality peer reviewed journals. Gunthe and his team of researchers have started working on this project.

“The laboratory will be extremely beneficial in studying the climate change scenario,” said Gunthe. Keeping the importance of this project in mind, IIT Madras has requested its alumni to contribute for setting up the laboratory.