WMO Sees No Impact Of Tsunami On Monsoon

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>Last month's devastating tsunami in Japan will have no impact on the progress of the June-September monsoon rains in India, a top official of the World Metereological Organisation (WMO) said on Thursday.<br><br>"Tsunami is a short-term phenomenon. Its occurrence in Japan will have no impact on the Indian monsoon," said Rupa Kumar Kolli, chief of WMO's world climate applications and services division told Reuters.<br><br>Kolli was speaking on the sidelines of the South Asian Outlook Forum, which should issue its agenda-setting consensus forecast for this year's monsoon on Friday.<br><br>India will give its first official forecast for this year's monsoon on April 19. The monsoon is crucial for India, which depends heavily on its agriculture sector to feed its 1.2 billion population.<br><br>(Reuters)</p>