Lok Sabha Question No. 2314 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-30
Subject: Disaster Prone Areas
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: RAJESHBHAI NARANBHAI CHUDASAMA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2314

TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2016

## DISASTER PRONE AREAS

## 2314. SHRI RAJESHBHAI CHUDASAMA

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Indian  sub-continent  is  among  the  most  disaster  prone areas  in  the  world  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reasons therefor;
- (b) whether  the  Department  of  Meteorology  has  been  able  to  forecast natural calamities accurately and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  adequate  technology  is  available  in  the  country  to  forecast natural  calamities  such  as  earthquake,  cyclone,  drought  and  floods etc. and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor along with the action taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) whether the Government has drawn any action plan to ensure safety of life  and property in the event of natural calamities and also to install early warning systems in all the States; and
- (e) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  time  by  which  such  mechanism  is likely to be put in place?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- Yes Madam. The Indian sub-continent is prone to many disasters like tropical  cyclones,  floods,  droughts,  landslides,  earthquakes,  severe thunder storms and lightening etc. The north India Ocean is one of the highly  vulnerable  regions  for  tropical  cyclone  activity.  Earthquakes occur along the 'Alpine-Himalayan belt', which also runs through the Andaman  Sumatra  arc,  Indo-Burmese  arc,  and  Himalayan  arc.  The continued collision/  subduction  of  Indian  plate  with  the  Eurasian  and Sunda plates cause these earthquakes. A few earthquakes also occur within the peninsular shield region of India, which are grouped under intra-plate category and occur due to internal deformation of the plate. Over  India,  floods  generally  occur  during  the  southwest  monsoon season  (June  to  September)  in  the  major  river  basins.  Floods  also occur  during  post-monsoon  seasons  (October  to  December)  over  the
- (a) south-eastern parts of the country.
- (b) Yes Madam. India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been successful  in  forecasting  the  track  and  intensity  of  the  tropical cyclones.  The  accurate  forecasts  of  recent  cyclones,  Phailin  and HudHud saved thousands of  human  lives.To  date,  there  is  no  proven scientific  technique  available,  anywhere  in  the  world,  to  predict/ forecast  the  occurrence  of  earthquakes  with  reasonable  degree  of accuracy with regard to space, time and magnitude.
- (c) IMD is responsible for monitoring, detection and forecasting of weather and  climate extremes  including severe  weather  events  such  as cyclones,  heavy  rainfall,  extreme  temperature  etc.  The  Government has  initiated  a  comprehensive  modernization  programme  for  IMD covering  upgradation  of  (i)  observation  systems  (ii)  advanced  data assimilation  tools  (iii)  advanced  communication  and  IT  infrastructure
- (iv) high performance computing systems and (v) intensive/sophisticated  training  of  IMD  personnel  to  facilitate  the implementation  of  advanced  global/regional/  meso-scale  prediction models for improving the accuracy of weather forecasts in all temporal and  spatial  scales  and  for  quick  dissemination  of  weather  forecast assessments/warnings to the users.

In  order  to  meet  specific  requirements  of  flood  forecasting,  which  is provided  by  Central  Water  Commission  (CMC),  IMD  operates  Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs) at thirteen locations viz., Agra, Ahmedabad, Asansol, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jalpaiguri, Lucknow,  New  Delhi,  Patna,  Srinagar  ,Bangaluru  and  Chennai.  Apart from  this,  IMD  also  supports  Damodar  Valley  Corporation  (DVC)  by providing  Quantitative  Precipitation  Forecast  (QPF)  for  Damodar  river basin  areas  for  their  flood  forecasting  activities.  During  the  flood season, FMOs provide valuable meteorological support to the Central Water Commission (CWC) for issuing flood warnings in respect of the 43 rivers  of  India  covering  146  river  basins.  CWC  is  working  in  close association with IMD and State Governments for timely flood forecast whenever the river water level rises above warning level. To meet the requirement  of  State  Governments,  IMD  Officers  invariably  attend  all the  meetings  called  by  the  State  Governments  for  reviewing  the preparedness on floods by various agencies.

Monitoring  of  the  seasonal  (monthly/  weekly  rainfall  scenario  with reference to respective normal (mean value) is only carried out by IMD to  regularly  assess  and  identify  zones  of  deficit  rainfall  leading  to drought conditions, the declaration of which remains with the mandate of Ministry of Agriculture in consultation with various state governments.

National Center for Seismology (NCS) is monitoring earthquake activity in and  around  the  county  round  the clock through its national seismological  network  along  with  other  global/regional  seismicity monitoring  networks.  Efforts  are  being  made  world-over  including India, to monitor and study various earthquake precursory phenomena in critical seismotectonic regions, which would not only help understand the earthquake generation processes better but also lead to  identifying  possible  earthquake  precursors,  which  may  serve  as useful predictors in future.

The  Indian  Tsunami  Early  Warning  Centre  (ITEWC)  has  all  necessary infrastructure  and  capabilities  to  give  tsunami  advisories  to  India  as well as to Indian Ocean countries. ITEWC has been designated as one of the Regional Tsunami Service Providers for the entire Indian Ocean Region by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO on 12 October 2011. Since then, ITEWC is providing tsunami warnings and related services to all countries in the Indian Ocean Rim (24 Countries) beyond fully serving the India's coastline / Islands.

- (d) Yes Madam
- (e) IMD  and  NCS  have  existing  mechanisms  to  coordinate  with  various state authorities. As such IMD provides inputs to State Crop Weather Watch  Group,  State  Disaster  Management  Authorities,  and  Relief Commissioners. During cyclones a coordination mechanism  with district authorities has also been established. Round the clock weather surveillance and forecasting system is operational at IMD for continued monitoring,  detection  and  warning  of  Cyclones;  river  basin  scale meteorological support (monitoring and warning) for CWCs river flood warning system and other severe  weather systems. Operational forewarning  systems  are  already  in  place  by  the  CWC  for  river  basin scale  flood.  Fully  organized  protocol  exists  between  IMD,  CWC  and with the various designated disaster management authorities at centre and  state  levels  for  dissemination  of  weather  forecasts  and  warning alerts.  The  ITEWC  is  capable  of  detecting  tsunamigenic  earthquakes occurring in the Indian Ocean as well as in the Global Oceans within 10 minutes  of  their  occurrence  and  disseminates  the  advisories  to  the concerned authorities within 20 minutes through email, fax, SMS, GTS and website.

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