Climate change is here and now.

WHEN you travel up north to Shimla this season, you may be shocked to see the high price of apples. Farmers would tell you this year's production is far less than last year's.

" Not enough snow, there's a drought," they tell you.

Elsewhere in the Himalayas, people are seeing changes in flowering patterns because of the changing weather.

This year, rhododendrons bloomed weeks ahead of the usual date.

If you come down south, you will see Coorgi gardeners switching over to crops like green gram that do not require much water and Mangalore farmers growing upland rice varieties that do not need stagnant water as much as the coastal types. Rainfall has become erratic with huge gaps, they would tell you.

On the west coast, traditional fishermen can no longer find some of the delicacies their grandfathers used to bring home. " The sea water is getting warmer and the currents are changing, affecting plankton and fish growth," says T. Peter, secretary of the National Fishworkers' Forum.

The more educated among the gardeners, farmers and fisherfolk would even tell you with a straight face: " It's because of global warming." It may be difficult to trace a direct, neatly drawn correlation between a global, long- term phenomenon like climate change and the price of your apple or the taste of your fish.

But there are enough indications to suggest concrete changes in the environment caused by global warming.

There is greater number of extreme rain events, heat waves have become more frequent, Himalayan glaciers are melting faster and delta islands in the Sundarbans are sinking partly because of gradual rise in sea level.

Does it explain the bad, erratic performance of the current monsoon that makes apples dearer? " This year's drought is a little unusual -- it need not necessarily be an impact of climate change," said Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, senior scientist at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Tirupati.

This is an El Nino year, but the atmospheric phenomenon over the Pacific is not as severe as scientists expected. There are large areas of warm sea surface temperature that aid local rainfall over the Indian Ocean, but not necessarily movement of clouds carrying the rain forward. Then there is the effect of westerly winds from the mid- latitudes.

However, Rajeevan is sure of one thing. Sea surface temperatures are up globally. In this context the long- term rainfall patterns are changing.

The globe as such is definitely warming up. 2005 was the second warmest year in the last 125 years. In the decade preceding that, nine of the 10 years were the warmest during that 125- year period.

" The surface air temperature in most parts of India increased by half a degree centigrade during the second half of the 20th century," points out J. Srinivasan, chairman of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science ( IISc).

The surface air temperature in the Himalayas has increased by one degree centigrade and led to the rapid melting of glaciers. While this can have long- term impact on the flow of snow- fed rivers and their irrigation, an increase in heat can also affect agriculture directly.

For instance, long- term studies show that horticulture crops like grapes require more irrigation than earlier, said Dr M. B. Rajegowda, an agrometeorologist at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore.

It is because of an increase in heat leading to more evapo- transpiration or the return of moisture to the air through evaporation from the soil and transpiration by plants.

Scientists say while it is important to plan for climate change, it is equally imperative to acknowledge and mitigate here- and- now damage to the environment.

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