THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABADTUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 20194 GUJARAT

Ahmedabad: A getaway toAhmedabad’s countrysideduring winter months mustbe an ideal destination, anescape from the city humd-rum and warmer nights. In-terestingly, the city’s landsurface temperatures (LST)are getting warmer each ye-ar during winters, especial-ly during nights, a 16-yearstudy has revealed. This dif-ference in surface tempera-tures during winter nightshas gone up from 3 degreesto 5 degrees celcius.

The elaborate study ofsurface urban heat island(SUHI) temperature datacaptured by satellite- and lo-cation-based study of Ah-medabad’s municipal limitsand rural outskirts has reve-aled this.

During summer dayti-me, surface temperatures inrural areas are warmer thantheir urban areas by 0.63°C.During winters, the daytimesurface temperatures in citi-es is hotter by 0.37°C. The me-an temperature differencein the night during summeris 1.84°C and is the highestduring winters at 3.19°C.

The study had examinedLST and SUHI from Modera-te Resolution Imaging Spec-troradiometer (MODIS) dataover Ahmedabad city from2003 to 2018.

Researchers Pir Moham-mad and Ajanta Goswamifrom department of earthsciences, IIT-Roorkee, andStefania Bonafoni of Univer-sity of Perugia, Italy, had un-dertaken a large exercise of

analysing land cover maps,vegetation index, evapot-ranspiration, urban popula-tion, and groundwater levelacross the years to assess the-se multiple factor impact onSUHI variations for Ahmed-abad city.

“Summer and winter

land surface patterns wereanalyzed, both daytime andnight-time,” claims the rese-arch. It further adds that Ah-medabad, was characterizedby a semi-arid climate.

Last year, another studyfor major Gujarat cities fromCharotar University of Sci-

ence and Technology(CUST), Anand, and IIT-Mumbai had found that van-ishing green cover in ruralareas and exposed fields af-ter harvest during the sum-mer were some of the rea-sons for rising rural tempe-ratures.

The study claimed thatrural areas in Gujarat werehotter by 2 to 2.5°C or 1-2°Cwhen compared to nearby ur-ban zones during daytime.The study used MODIS satel-lite data to develop the heatmap. These included Ahmed-abad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadoda-ra, Jamnagar, and Bhavna-gar in Gujarat.

The study found that bet-ween summer months ofMarch and May, most citiesare cooler than the rural orsuburban regions aroundthem.

The research studied 83cities in the country.

‘Rural GujaratIs Hotter By2.5°C Than

Urban Areas’Paul.John@timesgroup.com

‘Land surface is gettingwarmer in winter nights’

HOT TOPIC➤ During the hot pre-monsoon months, rural areas have lower evapotranspiration — water is transferred from land to atmosphere by plants — as they turn into arid regions after harvest

RURAL-URBAN TEMPERATURE DIVIDE

➤ In rural areas the government should undertake intensive tree plantation drives and carry out heat action plans with greater intensity

➤ Concrete structures in cities has higher specific heat values. which means it can store more heat and radiate heat during night

➤ Owing to higher wind velocities, rural areas cool faster during night, while in cities winds don’t have room to move faster

➤ Evapotranspiration levels in cities are relatively higher owing to human consumption of water, the presence of trees, grass, and lakes

Annual temperature variation (2003-2018) of mean SUHI for Ahmedabad city during summer and winter monthsYear Summer Winter Summer Winter day time day time night time night time2003 -1 +0.1 +1.6 + 3.22004 -0.7 +0.2 + 1.2 +3.32005 -0.6 +0.1 +1.9 +3.32008 -0.7 +0.4 +1.9 +3.42009 -0.9 +0.3 +2 +3.22011 -1.2 +0.3 +1.6 +3.42012 -0.6 +0.3 +1.6 +3.42016 -0.8 +0.6 +2 +3.52018 -0.8 +0.8 +2.1 +2.6

Summer/Winter | Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) for Ahmedabad city

(-) : Denotes rural areas warmer than city area, (+) : Denotes city areas warmer than rural areas

Thewinter of 2019 has remained hotter compared to earlieryears, indicate India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.On Sunday, the city recorded 17 degrees celsius as minimum

and 28 degrees as maximum temperature. While the minimumtemperature was 4.1degrees higher than the average, the maximumtemperature was 0.9 degrees lower.

“In November, the minimum temperature remained highbetween 19 to 24 degrees for Ahmedabad. In December, a few daysrecorded temperature below 15 degrees. While the day temperatureis nearly close to the average temperature, mercury in the night isnot going down,” said an IMD official. Officials point at weatherchange for the trend even as the city experienced chill for a couple ofdays with northeasterly winds. On Sunday, barring Bhuj, whichrecorded 4 degrees celsius, the minimum temperature remained inrange of 13 to 20 degrees celsius. There will be no major change inminimum temperature over two days, mentioned IMD forecast. TNN

It’s a hotter winter for state: IMD

Ahmedabad: A 27-year-old woman, who is a doctorfrom Bodakdev, was molested by a motorcycle-borneman on Sunday morning when she was cycling alonebetween NFD Circle and Judges Bungalow Crossro-ads. The woman, who has completed the MD coursefrom a foreign university, recently moved to the citywith her family. She was heading towards the crossro-ads at around 7am when the man, aged around 30, dro-ve towards her and groped her breasts.

The woman lost balance and fell on the road as a re-sult of the attack. The attacker escaped, using a smallgap between the divider in front of the IOC petrolpump, said a police official of Vastrapur police. “Thewoman was bruised and traumatized,” the official sa-id. This is not the first attack on a woman in the area,which falls under Vastrapur police limits. On October14, an Italian woman was molested in front of SPV En-clave in Bodakdev. DCP zone-1P L Mal said: “Usually,her brother accompanies her.”

Mal said that cops have begun collecting CCTV fo-otage from the area to identify the attacker. “Accor-ding to the description given by the woman, the attack-er was carrying some boxes,” he said. “So it seems thathe was a courier or a food delivery man.” Vastrapurpolice have filed a complaint of molestation and havebegun an investigation. Inspector M M Jadeja of Vast-rapur police did not divulge any details of the case.

Doc molested in poshlocality in Ahmedabad

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: A man incensedby his ex-wife’s second marria-ge stabbed his ex-wife’s motherand beat up her father in Gom-tipur area of the city on Sun-day.

The accused’s former mon-ther-in-law, Renuka Nama, 50,who suffered stab wounds, iscurrently being treated inShardaben Hospital. Gomti-pur police have lodged an FIRfor assault with a sharp-edgedweapon against the men, Jay-esh Harjibhai.

According to the FIR lod-ged by Nama, her elder daugh-ter Sonali had a love marriagewith Harjibhai in March 2014.However, within months of themarriage she returned to herparental house as allegedly Ja-yesh didn’t keep her well andsubjected her to mental andphysical torture.

According to the FIR, Sona-li was pregnant when she re-turned to her parents’ homeand gave birth to a girl who isnow five years old. Police sour-ces said Harjibhai and Sonalisettled legally divorced each

other in November 2017.The FIR mentions that So-

nali then married one ManishShantilal Shah in October 2019.On Sunday, while Nama was re-turning from a temple nearbyher house, Sonali’s first hus-band Jayesh stopped her andstarted abusing her for allo-wing her daughter to remarry.

Police sources said whenNama warned Jayesh to stay po-lite, he pulled out a knife andstabbed her in the stomach.When Nama raised an alarmher husband Vinayak ran out ofthe house, but Jayesh beat himup. Jayesh ran away from thespot, when people from the ne-ighbourhood began gathering.

Man stabs, thrashesex-wife’s parents overher second marriage

Sonali had a lovemarriage withHarjibhai in March2014. However,within months of themarriage shereturned to herparental house dueto mental andphysical torture

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Vadodara: Manager of MahiWatergate Resort and driverof a minibus ride were arres-

ted on Sundayby police inconnectionwith the deathof Jimil Ka-vaiya, 13-year-old boy from

Ahmedabad, in the resort onDecember 20. P T Jaiswal, po-lice sub-inspector of Padrapolice station, became thecomplainant in the acciden-tal death case of the class VIIIboy. An offence of culpablehomicide not amounting tomurder was re-gistered aga-inst the resortowner ShaileshShah, managerPiyush Vasoya and driverPrakash Parmar. The threepersons have also booked un-der the provisions of MotorVehicles Act. The trio was bo-oked as they had not followedrules and took permissionfrom RTO before modifyingthe car into a minibus.

Police reiterated in thecomplaint that the boy diedas he took his head out of thewindow of the minibus and itbanged against a pole of themonorail ride inside the re-sort.

Jaiswal said the minibusis actually an old Maruti Su-zuki Omni car which has be-

en modified with an open deckat the top. “No signages askingnot to put any part of the bodyout of the window are there inthe minibus. Resort ownersdid not they take any permis-sion from RTO or got the vehi-cle re-registered after the mo-

dification,”the complaintstated. The mi-nibus did nothave any glass

or iron grill on the windowand there was no registrationplate either.

Police said Shah had modi-fied the bus illegally to takeeconomic benefits from it andVasoya despite knowing abo-ut it, did not do anything aboutit. While interrogating Par-mar, it also came to light thathe had been driving the mini-bus in the resort for a whilewithout holding a driving li-cence.

After arresting the mana-ger and the driver, police havelaunched a manhunt for Shah,who lives in Fatehgunj nearEME Circle.

Manager of resort,bus driver arrested

Accused duo in police custody

TOITIMES NEWS NETWORK

VADODARA JOYRIDE TRAGEDY

Ahmedabad: A resident ofNaranpura on Sunday filedacomplaint with the city po-lice alleging that he and hisbrother were assaulted byhis neighbour’s son-in-lawover a dispute of spittingpan-masala.

In his FIR with Naranpu-ra police, Bharat Baghela,37, who works with a privatefirm, said that his brotherMahesh on Saturday nighttold him that their neighbo-ur Nanu Chunara’s son-in-law, Pradip Chunara spittedPan-Masala on Mahesh. Af-ter which Mahesh askedChunara to remain carefulwhile spitting Pan-masala.This did not go well with Pra-dip who abused Mahesh andthreatened with dire conse-quences, states the FIR.

When Bharat took upthis issue before Pradip andtheir neighbour, Nanu Chu-nara, they became angryover him and Mahesh andbegan thrashing them. Na-nu hit at Bharat’s face withsuch an impact that he losthis three teeth in the attack.

Bharat was taken to CivilHospital in Sola where a me-dico legal case was lodgedand Naranpura police, later,registered a complaint of as-sault against Nanu and Pra-dip.Nanu and Pradip also fi-led a counter complaint aga-inst Mahesh and Bharat al-leging that the two attackedthem.

Pan-masalaspat leads to brawl

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIAhmedabadBS PubDate: 24-12-2019 Zone: Rajkot Edition: 1 Page: RAJK4 User: abhijit.m Time: 12-23-2019 21:16 Color: CMYK