Advanced Warning system for natural calamities

Advanced Warning system for natural calamities

Question:-Advance warning and preparedness for a disaster go hand in hand especially for calamities of great magnitude. Critically analyze India’s preparedness and the challenges that appear on this front.

- A period of ten years is not enough to wipe out memories of the tsunami that wrecked human life and property, with Banda Aceh on the Sumatran coast bearing the brunt of the earthquake followed by a series of tsunamis in the Indian Ocean region in 2004.

- Reasons for establishing advanced warning system: Following the disaster, India set up a system in 2005 and upgraded it in 2007 at the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services in Hyderabad. The system is designed to issue tsunami bulletins within ten minutes of an earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

- The tsunami that made a huge impact in south Asian and Pacific region had sent a message of need of advance warning system in order to prevent further destruction.

- Remote sensing satellite developed by ISRO inform the IMD, Pune of the plausible calamities and this has resulted in a decrease of death toll visible from 1999 Odisha to 2007. Another crucial step in this direction is the GIS system based on 3D protocol by INCOIS.

Emerging challenges

- According to the reports of IPCC, 2007, intense cyclonic events on the eastern coast of India will increase.

- The rising sea levels and cyclones, storms along with changes in precipitation need to be assessed according to TERI (energy research institute)

- India has a long coastline where towns and cities in coastal areas face multiple risks due to variability in climate.

The rate at which climate has changed over the last few years and will continue to do so has made it imperative to be well prepared for disasters so as to have minimal destruction.

Facts and figures:

- Indian Tsunami Early Warning System became full fledged operational early warning system in October 2007.

- According to NDMA, the possibilities of earthquake risk and vulnerability in India is very high as about 59%.

- The first seismological observatory in India was set up by the department at Kolkata in 1898.