(a) the details of instruments developed and installed so far on latest technology to predict natural
calamities in coastal areas;
(b) the extent of success achieved in this regard by the Government; and
(c) the details of efforts made by the Government so far to check the natural calamities in
coastal areas in the interest of people living near the coastal areas?
MINISTER FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
(SHRI S. JAIPAL REDDY)
(a) Earth System Science Organization –India Meteorological Department (ESSO-IMD) has installed Doppler
Weather Radars network over the coastal areas of the country to identify zones of strong wind and heavy
precipitation associated with cyclone as and when cyclone moves in to the 500 km radial coverage range.
ESSO-IMD has established network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG)
over the coastal districts to further authenticate the ground level impact associated with the cyclone landfall.
To acquire information from the seas around India, Moored Buoys, Drifters, Argo Profiling Floats, Current Meters,
Wave Rider buoys, Tsunami buoys have been installed. These equipments are fitted with the state-of-the-art
technology sensors, which are capable of transmitting information in near real-time through satellites from the
seas around India, except those deployed in the sub- surface. Each of the equipment is designed to acquire a
set of specific parameters viz., Temperature, Salinity, currents, winds, waves, depth, atmospheric
pressure and humidity.
Observing systems support for the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) comprises of real-time seismic
monitoring network of 17 broadband seismic stations apart from other national and international seismic stations
to detect under-sea tsunamigenic earthquakes from the two known subduction zones of Andaman-Sumatra and
Makran in Indian Ocean which can potentially affect entire Indian coastal states and Island regions, a network of
real-time sea-level sensors with Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR) in the open ocean, HF Radars for coastal
currents and coastal tide gauge stations to capture tsunami wave speed and amplitude on 24 X 7 basis.
(b) A full proof 24x7 operational cyclone detection and movement mechanism exists for the assessment of intensity,
track and landfall over the coastal areas of the country. Details of such monitoring mechanism include genesis of
the possible cyclonic circulation over the open seas is generated by the meso-scale short range (72hrs in advance)
prediction models and global scale medium range (120hrs in advance) prediction models along with monitoring sea
surface temperature and moisture convergence, satellite monitoring is pursued for detecting cyclogenesis and
monitoring further intensity, movement and landfall of cyclones. By leveraging all available modeling and observing
systems, IMD is able to reduce the track and landfall errors of cyclones by about 7% over the last 3-4 years due to
the implementation of the phase-I of the IMDs modernization programme that got quantitatively manifested with the
landfall forecast of Phailin cyclone during 08-14 October 2013.
Earth System Science Organisation- Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS) has
installed the Indian Ocean Forecasting System (INDOFOS) integrating existing forecasts of high ocean wave and
the surface and subsurface parameters of the Indian Ocean. The system, at present, provides forecast on wave
heights, wave direction, sea surface temperature (SST), surface currents, mixed layer depth (MLD) and depth of
20oC isotherm up to 5-7 days in advance. This system is operational since January 2010.
ITEWC was established and made fully functional since 2007 and is now rendering operational services as a
Regional Tsunami Watch Provider (RTWP) for whole of the Indian Ocean Region by the ESSO-INCOIS of the
Ministry of Earth Sciences located in Hyderabad. All types of data collected from the ITEWC are fully archived
and is fully accessible to the Decision Support System (DSS).
(c) As a part of “Establishment of National Early Warning System for Tsunamis and Storm Surgesâ€, the Ministry
had taken up development “Coastal Vulnerability Modeling and Inundation Mappingâ€. Under this endeavor, a wide
range of coastal vulnerability maps on different spatial scales are being generated for the entire coast of India by
various agencies primarily for use in the forewarning of various ocean hazards viz., Tsunami,
Cyclones and Storm Surges.
The tsunami wave arrival time to different coastal locations depends upon the location of the under-sea earthquake
and intensity. In general the tsunami reaction time will be around 2h for the Indian mainland if the earthquake has
occurred in the vicinity of the two known subduction zones. As far as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands is concerned,
the reaction time is around 30-minutes. Hence the standard operational procedure (SOP) and the emergency
response plans are formulated in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the disaster management
agencies of coastal states and UTs.