The widespread concern generated by the UNEP news releaset about the so-called Asian Brown Cloud and the multifarious impacts it was projected to have on health, agriculture and climate on regional and global scales was addressed in our paper 'Asian Brown Cloud - Fact and Fantasy' (henceforth referred to as SG). In response to our paper, four leading scientists of the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), (henceforth referred to as RCMS), have published a paper on the Indian Ocean Experiment and the Asian Brown Cloud. It is gratifying to note that on several issues that we had raised, there is no disagreement. First, we had pointed out that, contrary to the impression given by the news release of pollution being a special feature of the Asian region, the scourge of pollution is by no means restricted to Asia but is a global phenomenon, and RCMS have supported this statement (p. 954). We had also emphasized that the brown haze is not a permanent feature of the atmosphere over the region, but occurs primarily outside the southwest and northeast monsoon seasons and that natural aerosols, which dominate anthropogenic aerosols during May-September, are likely to have a larger impact on the southwest monsoon. These statements are also consistent with the analysis presented by RCMS and are not questioned by them.
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