New Delhi, Feb 11: India has successfully prevented the United Nations Environment Programme from taking any decision on the controversial Asian Brown Cloud (ABC) issue at the UNEP's Governing Council meet held recently in Kenya. At the meeting India took the stand that the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), which threw light on ABC, reportedly a thick cloud of aerosols and other particulates over the Indian Ocean regions resulting from burning of biomass and fuel wood, was not based on decisions of the Governing Council, an official release said here today.
"The draft decision on ABC, the most contentious item on the agenda of the Governing Council of UNEP, was dropped from consideration," the release said.
India's views on ABC, had found wide support at UNEP's crucial meeting at Kenya. "The Indian delegation led by Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, K C Mishra, succeeded in having a draft decision on ABC deleted from the considerartion of the Governing Council of UNEP," it said.
The delegation pointed out that the ABC was actually a haze prevailing over a short period in Winter months and was neither regionally exclusive nor scientifically apporpriate. Bureau Report