Lok Sabha Question No. 1085 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-07
Subject: System for Forecast of Cyclone and Flood
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Vijay Kumar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1085 TO BE ANSWERED ON FEBRUARY 07, 2020

## SYSTEM FOR FORECAST OF CYCLONE AND FLOOD

1085.            SHRI VIJAY KUMAR:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- whether  the  Government  has  developed  any  system/mechanism which could accurately forecast natural disasters like, flood and cyclone so that adequate measures could be taken to save lives
- (a) and property;
- (b)
- if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the  details  of  forecast  system  developed  by  the  Government  so far along with the funds allocated and utilised for this purpose?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

- (a) to (c) India Meteorological Department (IMD) is dedicated for monitoring, detection and weather  forecasts including early warnings for severe weather events such as cyclones, floods etc.

The weather forecasting and early warning systems in the country are comparable to those of most of the developed countries in the world in terms of accuracy, lead time and associated impact. IMD continuously expands its infrastructure for meteorological observations, data exchange, monitoring & analysis, forecasting and warning services using contemporary technology.

IMD  uses  a  suite  of  quality  observations  from  satellites,  radars and conventional & automatic weather stations for monitoring of cyclones developing over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. It includes INSAT 3D, 3DR and SCATSAT satellites, Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) along the coast and coastal  Automated Weather Stations  (AWS),  Automatic  Rain  Gauges  (ARGs),  meteorological buoys and ships. The High Performance Computing (HPC) systems have  been  upgraded  with  6.8petaflops  recently  to  support  the ongoing  efforts on modelling. Operational  implementation  of improved  suite  of  prediction  models  has  enhanced  the  weather forecasting capability through assimilation of all available global satellite  radiance  and  Radar  data  for  the  generation  of  forecast products at 12 km grid globally and 3 km grid over India/regional/mega city domains.

Heavy rainfall events lead to floods over different river basins of the  country.  River  basin  floods  are  dealt  by  the  Central  Water Commission (CWC)  under  the  Ministry  of  Jal  Shakti.  In  order  to meet specific requirements of flood forecasting, which is provided by CWC, Ministry of Jal Shakti, IMD operates Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs)  at thirteen locations viz.,  Agra,  Ahmedabad, Asansol, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jalpaiguri, Lucknow,  New  Delhi,  Patna,  Srinagar,  Bengaluru  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. Central  Water  Commission  is  working  in  close  association  with IMD  and  State  Governments  for  timely  flood  forecast  whenever the river water level rises above warning level. FMOs operated by the  IMD  provide  meteorological  support  to  the  CWC  for  issuing flood warnings well in advance in respect of the 43 rivers of India covering 146 river basins. CWC issues flood forecasts 6 hrs. to 30 hrs. in advance for 176 stations using QPF received from FMOs of IMD and in-situ hydrometeorological data.

During  recent  years,  IMD  has  consistently  given  an  accurate prediction for cyclones like Phailin (2013), HudHud (2014), Vardha (2016),  Mekunu  (2018),  Sagar  (2018),  Titli  (2018),  Luban  (2018), Fani  (2019),  Hikaa  (2019)  and  Bulbul  (2019)  thereby  helping disaster managers to minimise loss of lives to less than 100 due to tropical cyclones  in recent years.  IMD  has  also  earned worldwide accolades in the field of cyclone forecasting including appreciations from United Nations, World Meteorological Organisation, President and Prime Minister of India, Parliamentary Standing Committee, Indian Science Congress etc.

The following programs have been approved during 2017-20 under the 'Umbrella' scheme 'Atmospheric & Climate ResearchModeling  Observing  Systems  &  Services  (ACROSS)  of  MoES  for betterment of weather services along with funds allocated:

- 

- 'Atmospheric Observation Network' Rs. 220 Cr.

-  'Upgradation of Forecasting Services' Rs. 158 Cr.

-  'Weather & Climate Services' Rs. 241 Cr.

- 

- 'Commissioning of DWR' Rs.   44 Cr.

TOTAL Rs. 663 Cr.

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