Lok Sabha Question No. 2037 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-07
Subject: Earth Science Projects
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: RITI PATHAK

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2037 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 07, 2018

## EARTH SCIENCE PROJECTS

## 2037. SHRIMATI RITI PATHAK:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) the State/UT-wise details of Earth Sciences schemes/projects implemented or under implementation by the Government during each of the last three years and the current year;
- (b) the  State/UT-wise  details  of  funds  sanctioned/allocated/utilized  under such schemes during the said period;
- (c) the progress made under such schemes during the said period;
- (d) whether  the  Government  is  satisfied  with  the  achievements  made under such schemes; and
- (e) if  not,  the  reasons  therefor  and  the  remedial  action  taken  by  the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES (SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a) Madam,  the  mandate  of  the  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences  (MoES)  is  to provide services for weather,  climate, ocean  and  coastal  state, hydrology,  seismology  and  natural  hazards;  to  explore  marine  living and non-living resources in a sustainable way and to explore the three polar regions  (Arctic,  Antarctic  and  Himalayas).  To  achieve  this mandate,  the  research  &  development  and  operational  activities  of MoES are carried out under the following five major programs:
1. Atmosphere and Climate Research - Modelling, Observing Systems and Services (ACROSS).
2. Ocean  Services,  Technology,  Observations,  Resources,  Modelling and Science (OSTORMS).
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- Polar and Cryosphere Research (PACER).
- Seismology and Geosciences (SAGE).
- Research, Education, Outreach and Training (REACHOUT)

The above schemes are central sector schemes. They are for the entire country and not specific to any State/UT.

- (b) The details of the funds utilised under these schemes during the last three years are given in Annexure-I.
- (c) The progress made under these schemes during the above period is as follows:

## (i) ACROSS:

-  Augmentation of  surface  and  upper  air  observational  network  and Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) Network.
-  Establishment  of  High  Performance  Computing  System  with  6.8 Petaflop speed to meet the modelling requirements.
-  Under  the  National  Monsoon  Mission,  a  high  resolution  global deterministic weather prediction model has been commissioned for generating operational weather forecasts at short, medium, monthly and  seasonal  timescales.  Noteworthy  improvement  was  made  in track  and  intensity  forecast  of  the  tropical  cyclones,  and  skills  of Heavy Rainfall Forecasts
-  Expansion  of  Agro-meteorological  Advisory  Services.  At  present about  22.7  millions  farmers  receive  these  weather  forecast  and agromet advisories directly by SMS.
-  The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) system has been developed and deployed at Delhi, Pune,
- Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

## ii) OSTORMS:

-  Augmentation  of  Ocean  Observing  Systems  in  the  Indian  Ocean through national and international efforts.
-  Provided  a  suite  of  advisory  services  on  24x7  basis,  such  as Tsunami early earning, Potential Fishing Zone, Ocean State forecast, coral bleach alert to cater to various sectors.
-  The Ocean State Forecast service has been extended for neighbouring countries.
-  Operationalization  of  International  Training  Centre  for  Operational Oceanography  at  Hyderabad,  which  has  been  recent  upgraded  to UNESCO Category-2 Centre (C2C).
-  Indigenously  developed  500  m  depth  rated  shallow  water/Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle (PROVe). It was successfully deployed in  the  Andaman  coral  Islands  and  the  vehicle  was  successfully maneuvered  in  the  undulating  reef  terrain  to  record  high  quality underwater visuals of coral reef biodiversity with spectral irradiance.
-  Developed backward bent ducted buoy to generate power from sea waves,  drifter  buoy,  deep  ocean  bottom  pressure  recorder,  and autonomous passive acoustic monitoring system.
-  Beach  nourishment  technique  was  demonstrated  at  Puducherry coast leading to gain of 60 m wide beach.

## iii) PACER:

-  Established  a  high  altitude  research  station  in  Himalaya  called HIMANSH at a remote region in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh.
-  Deployed India's first multi-sensor moored sub-surface observatory (IndARC) at a water depth of ~180 m in the Arctic. India has been accorded the Observer status in the Arctic Council in recognition of her scientific contributions endeavours in Polar research.
-  Indian  Scientific  expeditions  to  Antarctica  were  launched  and executed successfully.
-  Research studies were carried out on variability of cryosphere using remote sensed data,  southern  Indian  Ocean  and  past  climate  and oceanic variability of polar regions.

## iv) SAGE :

-  Setting up of the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) at New Delhi to  provide  added  thrust  to  seismological  services  in  the  country. NCS  now  has  102  national  observatories  with  real  time  data streaming through VSAT connectivity.
-  For  automatic  earthquake  parameter  dissemination,  IndiaQuake,  a mobile App was developed and launched.
-  The Scientific Deep Drilling Project at Koyna, Maharashtra started in 2016 with the aim of setting up of borehole observatory at 3.0 to 5.0 km  depths  for  directly  measuring  parameters  in  the  near  field  of earthquakes - before, during and after their occurrence.
-  In order to undertake micro-zonation, studies of 30 selected cities, falling  in  seismic  zone  V,  IV,  III  and  State  Capitals  has  been initiated. As a part of this exercise, Micro-zonation of Delhi has been completed based on Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA).

## v) REACHOUT :

-  Under  this  program,  Ministry  has  supported  about  60  focused research projects in the area of Atmospheric Science and Geoscience  during  the  last  3  years  and  current  year.  As  human resource  development  and  capacity  building,  the  ministry  has supported  M.Sc/  M.Tech/Ph.D.  programmes  at  various  Universities and IITs.
-  During  the  last  three  years,  MoES  has  also  supported  about  300 seminars, workshops, etc. in the area relevant to its mandate.
-  Successful  international  cooperation  with  different  countries  for collaborative research and human resources development.
-  Regional  leadership  through  Bay  of  Bengal  Initiative  for  MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Regional Integrated  Multi-Hazard  Early  Warning  System  for  Africa  and  Asia (RIMES), and International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCO ocean).
- (d) Yes.
- (e) Not Applicable.

Annexure-I

|   No. | Schemes   |   2015-16 Actuals (in Crores) |   2016-17 Actuals (in Crores) |   2017-18 R.E. (in Crores) |
|-------|-----------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------|
|     1 | ACROSS    |                        278.87 |                        394.6  |                     423    |
|     2 | O-STORMS  |                        279.7  |                        305.54 |                     326    |
|     3 | PACER     |                        118.66 |                        114.74 |                     127    |
|     4 | SAGE      |                        117.78 |                         51.04 |                      88.82 |
|     5 | REACHOUT  |                         60.99 |                         36.27 |                      46    |