Lok Sabha Question No. 466 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-06
Subject: Earth Science Plans/Projects
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: KAMLA DEVI PATLE

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No.  466

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

## EARTH SCIENCEPLANS/PROJECTS

- 466 SHRIMATI KAMLA DEVI PAATLE:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  the  earth  science  plans/projects  implemented/under implementation  by  the  Government  during  each  of  the  last  three years and the current year.
- (b) the details of the funds sanctioned, allocated and utilized under the said schemes during the said period, State-wise;
- (c) the progress made under these plans/projects during the said period
- (d) whether the Government is satisfied with the progress made thereon; and
- (e)
- if not, the remedial measures taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

- (a) The  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences  (MoES)  holistically  addresses  all  the aspects relating the Earth System  Science  for providing weather, climate,  ocean,  coastal  state,  hydrological  and  seismological  services. The services include forecasts and warnings for various natural disasters like tropical cyclones, storm surge, floods, heat waves, thunderstorm and lightning and earthquakes etc. In addition, the ministry has the mandate of making ocean survey for living and non-living resources and exploration of all the three poles (Arctic, Antarctic and Himalayas). The five major programs of the MoES are as follows:
- (i) Atmospheric and Climate Research, Observations Science Services (ACROSS)
- (ii) Ocean  Services,  Modelling  Application,  Resources  And  Technology (O-Smart)
- (iii)
- Polar and Cryosphere Research (PACER)
- (iv) Seismology and Geoscience Research (SAGE)
- (v)
- REACHOUT
- (b) The expenditure profile for the last 3 years is shown in the table below. The activities undertaken by the MoES are for the entire country and not state wise.

| Year    |      BE |      RE | Actual Expenditure   |
|---------|---------|---------|----------------------|
| 2015-16 | 1622.68 | 1420.98 | 1296.80              |
| 2016-17 | 1672.45 | 1579.11 | 1459.76              |
| 2017-18 | 1719.48 | 1597.69 | 1547.73              |
| 2018-19 | 1800    | 1800    | 1320.00*             |

*As on  31/12/2018

- (c) Some of the major achievements made under the these plans/projects are as follows:
-  Improved Weather and Cyclone Predictions
-  The loss of lives during the last 4 years due to tropical cyclones has  reduced  to  less  than  hundred  as  compared  to  the  thousands during  the  previous  decade.  This  large  reduction  in  casualties  is attributed to substantial improvement in our capability in monitoring and prediction of tropical cyclones.
-  During  2014-17,  the  24,  48  &  72  hr  cyclone  track  forecast  errors were 85, 137 & 204 km respectively which are 22-26% less than the errors  during  2010-13.The  24  hour    Tropical  Cyclone  Landfall forecast error reduced to 40 kms during 2013-17  from about 90 Km during 2008-12.
-  Early  warning  system  and  preparedness  plan  for  extreme  heat events have resulted in the decrease in the number of deaths from about 2400 in 2015 to about 220 in 2017.
-  Anew early warning system of air quality in Delhi was developed in collaboration with National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA and was launched on 15  October 2018. The system will assimilate data  from around  36  monitoring  stations  and satellite  data  on  stubble  burning  and  dust  storms.  These  warning services were provided to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
-  Development of advanced dynamical prediction systems for Seasonal prediction of Monsoon ; Extended range prediction (for next 20 days) and  Short  &  medium  range  prediction  (up  to  10  days)  under  the National monsoon mission.
-  Crop specific agro-meteorological advisories in vernacular languages are provided to about 40 million farmers. In 2014, this number was just 7 million farmers.
-  The  Indian  National  Centre  for  Ocean  Information  Services  (INCOIS) provides PFZ advisories to about 4 lakh fishermen on a daily basis to help them to easily locate the areas of abundant fish in the ocean. In 2014, this number was just 1 lakh fishermen.
-  Ocean  State  Forecasts  (  forecasts  of  waves,  currents,  sea  surface temperature, etc.) to fisher folk, shipping industry, oil and natural gas industry,  Navy,  Coast  Guard  and  other  stakeholders  have  improved considerably during the last 4 years. INCOIS/MoES also provides the OSF  services  to  several  Indian  Ocean  rim  countries  including  Sri Lanka  and  Seychelles.  At  present,  the  ocean  state  forecasts  are provided to approximately 16 lakh users on daily basis.
-  The Indian Tsunami Early warning Centre (ITEWC) has been designated as Tsunami Service Provider(TSP) for the Indian Ocean.India is providing bulletins to 25 countries on the Indian Ocean rim.  Major  highlight  of  the  warning  centre  is  100%  detection  of Tsunamis about threat threshold and NO FALSE ALARMS of Tsunamis.
-  The coastline of India is undergoing changes  due  to various anthropogenic  and  natural interventions. Precise  information  on shoreline changes is essential to address the various coastal problems  such  as  coastal  erosion,  closure  of  river  /  lagoons  /creeks mouths,  etc.The  National  Centre  for  Coastal  Research  (NCCR)  has prepared a status report on shoreline changes for the period 26 years (1990 to 2016).
-  The  Centre  for  Marine  Living  Resources  and  Ecology  (CMLRE)  has taken-up two intensive projects during 2017-20: (a) Marine Ecosystem Dynamics of Eastern Arabian Sea (MEDAS), a mega multi-disciplinary ecosystem approach based time-series study involving multiinstitutional expertise; and (b) Resource Exploration and Inventorization System (REIS)
-  The Deep Sea Technologies group of the National Institute of Ocean Technology  (NIOT)  is  involved  in  developing  manned  and  unmanned underwater vehicles along with allied technologies for the exploration and  exploitation  of  deep  ocean  mineral  resources  such  as  polymetallic  manganese  nodules,  gas  hydrates,  hydrothermal  sulphides etc and other oceanographic, polar and industrial applications.
-  A crawler-based mining machine with a flexible riser was developed and demonstrated successfully  at 500 metres A mining machine  has  now  been  upgraded  for  6,000  m  water  depth  and undergoing field trials..
-  To  test  the  strength  of  the  soil  at  those  depths  an in-situ  soil tester  also  has  been  developed  and  deployed  up  to  a  maximum depth  of  5,462  m  at  the  polymetallic  nodule  site  in  the  Central Indian Ocean.
-  A  Remotely  Operated  Vehicle  (ROV)  was  developed  to  aid  the exploration of the deep ocean minerals at depths of 5,500 m.
-  Development of indigenized technologies for producing clean drinking water  from  the  ocean.  Currently  there  are  three  desalination  plants operational  at  Kavaratti,  Agatti  and  Minicoy  which  are  individually producing 1 lakh litres  of  water  per  day.  Recently  NIOT  has  started work for establishment of six more plants at Androth, Amini, Chetlat, Kadamat, Kalpeni and Kiltan Islands with a capacity of 1.5 Lac Litres per day at a cost of Rs 187.87 Crs.
-  The  Beach  Restoration  project  in  Puducherry  has  been  successfully completed  by  scientists  at  National  Institute  of  Ocean  Technology (NIOT). Demonstration of submerged reef at Puducherry has resulted in formation of a wider beach at Puducherry.
-  The National Seismological Network now comprises of 115 seismological observatories spread across the country and the earthquake detection capabilities are improved to a minimum threshold  earthquake  magnitude  of  3.0.  The  Seismic  Microzonation work related to Geophysical investigations has been initiated for the four selected cities, namely, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, and Mangalore. In addition, mocrozonation for the 8 more cities, considered to be important from seismic point of view, is being taken up separately on priority through academic and research organizations in  India.  The  list  includes,  Patna,  Meerut,  Amritsar,  Agra,  Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Dhanbad.
-  The  Borehole  Geophysical  Research  Laboratory  (BGRL),  Karad  near Koyna, Maharashtra has completed the drilling of 3.0 km pilot hole for seismological  observations.  These  observations  will  help  in  better understanding  of  the  mechanics  of  faulting,  physics  of  reservoir triggered earthquakes and preparing an earthquake predictive model.
-  The National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) has initiated setting up Critical Zone Observatories at three different hydroclimatic regions in the south India: 1) Munnar -Humid high-altitude observatory; 2) Silent Valley Twin Watershed - tropical east and west flowing  humid  to  semiarid  transition  region;  and  3)  Trichy  -  Cauvery delta region.
-  Annual Indian Scientific expedition to Antarctica (ISEA) was launched to carry out various scientific projects under cryosphere and ice core studies, remote sensing studies, lacustrine studies, and environmental studies.
-  Expeditions to the Arctic region has led to the generation of continuous long term data from the Arctic and brought up several new aspects on the physical and optical properties of aerosols, associated processes, and their radiation interaction over the Polar region.
-  In  order  to  understand  glacier  impact  on  hydrology  and  climate  of Himalaya  region,  six  benchmark  glaciers  (Sutri  Dhaka,  Batal,  Bara Shigri, SamudraTapu, Gepang and Kunzam) of Western Himalaya have been monitored since 2013 on long term basis. Field station Himansh at  Sutri  Dhaka,  Chandra  basin  is  used  as  base  for  all  operational activities to carry out Glaciological studies in the Himalaya
-  To support on-going operational and research activities in atmospheric and ocean modelling, MoES has acquired the HPC facility of 6.8 Peta Flops (PF) and has been installed at two of its constituent units:  4.0  Peta  Flops  HPC  facility  at  Indian  Institute  of  Tropical Meteorology  (IITM),  Pune  and  2.8  Peta  Flops  facility  at  NCMRWF, Noida. India is now placed at the 4th position after Japan, UK and USA for dedicated HPC resources for weather/climate community.
-  The Ministry supported various R & D activities in the thrust areas of different  components  of  Earth  System  Sciences  that  are  theme  and need based. The Ministry also supported various seminars/workshops/conferences  to  create  awareness  amongst  the public,  students,  academicians  and  user  communities  about  the various fields of Earth System Science.

- (d) Yes Madam

- (e) Does not arise

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