Climate change likely led to fall of Indus Valley Civilisation: Study
New York: Shifting monsoon patterns linked to climate change likely caused the rise and fall of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, according to a study by an Indian-origin scientist which analysed data from North India covering the past 5,700 years.
The analysis by Nishant Malik from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in the US used a new mathematical method to study ancient climate patterns in North India over time, providing insights about past climates using indirect observations.
The research, published in Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, noted that by measuring the presence of particular chemical forms in stalagmite mineral deposits in caves in South Asia, scientists could develop a record of monsoon rainfall in the region for the past 5,700 years.
However, Malik said studying ancient climate time series with mathematical tools typically used to understand climate is a challenging task.
"Usually the data we get when analysing paleoclimate is a short time series with noise and uncertainty in it. As far as mathematics and climate is concerned, the tool we use very often in understanding climate and weather is dynamical systems," Malik said.
"But dynamical systems theory is harder to apply to paleoclimate data. This new method can find transitions in the most challenging time series, including paleoclimate, which are short, have some amount of uncertainty and have noise in them," he explained.
While there are several theories about why the Indus Valley Civilisation declined, including invasion by nomadic Indo-Aryans and earthquakes, climate change appears to be the most likely scenario, the study noted.
However, Malik said there was no mathematical proof until the new hybrid approach was applied.
According to his analysis, there was a major shift in monsoon patterns just before the dawn of this civilisation and that the pattern reversed course right before it declined, indicating it was in fact climate change that caused the fall.
The RIT scientist believes the new method will allow scientists to develop more automated methods of finding transitions in ancient climate data, leading to additional important historical discoveries.
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Will uplift poor Muslims financially, protect Wakf Board properties: Chandrababu Naidu
Vijayawada, March 27 (PTI): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday called Ramadan a month of discipline, charity and reflection at an Iftar party hosted by the state government in Vijayawada.
The chief minister joined Muslims in their prayers and reaffirmed his commitment to uplifting poor Muslims and protecting Wakf Board properties in the state.
"We established Urdu universities in Hyderabad and Kurnool, and a Haj House in Kadapa. Between 2014 and 2019, we provided ‘Dulhan’ assistance to 32,722 minority brides at Rs 163 crore," said the chief minister at the Iftar party.
The NDA coalition government is working to uplift poor Muslim families while ensuring the protection of Wakf Board properties as TDP has always supported the Muslim community, said Naidu.
The TDP supremo said that the party shares a strong bond with Muslims as it extended several benefits in united Andhra Pradesh while NTR (NT Rama Rao) established a finance corporation and made Urdu the second official language, including building Haj House and protecting Wakf properties.
Naidu said that the state government has increased honoraria for Imams to Rs 10,000 and for Mouzans to Rs 5,000 while allocating Rs 5,434 crore for Muslim minorities with an increase of Rs 1,300 crore from the previous year.
