Pune schoolchildren have a field day at imd

Schoolchildren got to learn a lot at the India meteorological department (IMD) in Shivajinagar on Wednesday, as the 83-year-old Pune institution threw open its doors on the occasion of World Meteorological Day.

Posters were put up on the theme ‘Climate for you’ in the corridors of the venerable building representing the key departments of the IMD namely, weather forecasting,
research, instrumentation, agro-meteorology and training.

In the weather forecasting department for instance, there were attractive charts depicting the relationship between El Nino, La Nina and the Indian monsoon, normal monsoon in cms, drought years in India since 1875, variation of monsoon rainfall in 1901-2007 and air pollution backgrounders.

The met office also showed short films on cyclones, monsoon and earthquakes in the conference room, which was a big hit with the schoolchildren. However, a short film on Antartica — which was shown on the first floor corridor — was the real favourite.

The standard VIII schoolgirls from the Shaniwar Peth-based Ahilyadevi High School squealed in delight when a waddle of penguins came on the screen. They were also in for a treat when they visited the airport meteorological instrument section.

The section’s director, KV Padgalwar, enthusiastically demonstrated various airport weather measuring equipment like the weather indicating system, visibility measuring equipment and the anemometer, a wind speed measuring device.

Ahilyadevi High School’s standard VIII student, Ruchira Kulkarni said, “I liked the earthquake film, because it gave me a lot of information about different types of earthquakes. I have all the news clippings of the recent Japanese earthquake in my file,” she said.

Ruchira’s classmate, Madhura Pasalkar, liked the Antartica film. “I enjoyed watching the penguins in the film. It was also nice to see Maitri, India’s workstation in Antarctica, with all our scientists. It is my dream to visit this continent,” Madhura said.

Ahilyadevi High School geography teacher, Smita Karandikar told DNA, “A visit to the observatory is a topic in the standard VIII science book and hence it was apt to bring these girls to the IMD on World Meteorology Day. I am confident they have learnt a lot.”