Lok Sabha Question No. 1932 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-02-11
Subject: PRITHVI Vigyan Scheme
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Jagdambika Pal, Shri Khagen Murmu, Smt. Smita Uday Wagh, Shri Praveen Patel

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1932

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 11 TH  FEBRUARY, 2026

## PRITHVI VIGYAN SCHEME

1932. SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL: SHRI PRAVEEN PATEL: SMT. SMITA UDAY WAGH: SHRI KHAGEN MURMU:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  implementation  of  the  Prithvi  Vigyan  (PRITHVI)  Scheme  has  led  to significant strengthening of long-term Earth observation networks including atmospheric,  oceanic,  cryospheric,  geophysical  systems  along  with  the  advances  in numerical modelling and data assimilation capabilities;
- (b) if so, the details of new observational assets deployed or existing infrastructure upgraded under  the  Scheme  indicating  their  geographic  or  domain  coverage  particularly  in Maharashtra  including  any  stations  or  facilities  benefiting  the  Jalgaon  Lok  Sabha Constituency;
- (c) whether these enhanced systems have contributed to improved forecasting accuracy for weather events, climate variability and natural hazards such as floods, heatwaves and cyclones;
- (d) if  so,  the  measurable  improvements  recorded  during  2024-25  including  lead  time, accuracy and early warning dissemination; and
- (e) the steps taken to ensure effective utilisation of PRITHVI outputs by State agencies for disaster preparedness, agriculture and water resource management?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes Sir.
- (b) Under the PRITHvi VIgyan (PRITHVI) Scheme, new observational assets have been deployed and upgraded across diverse geographies and domains. These include:
-  Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) network has been expanded to 48 DWRs with the commissioning of 10 X-Band Doppler Weather Radars and 02 C-Band DWRs. Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Upper Air Network (GUAN) RS/RW stations increased  from  6  to  12.  Out  of  62  stations,  25  Pilot  Balloon  (PB)  stations  were upgraded to GPS based PB stations. 400 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) were added to the existing AWS network. In addition, 200 Agro-AWS were commissioned across the country. The High Wind Speed Recorder network along the East and West Coast of India has been expanded to 37 stations.
-  In Maharashtra, there are 18 departmental and 24 non-departmental observatories, 85 Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), 10 Agro- AWSs, 125 Automatic Rain Guage (ARG) stations and 350 District Rainfall Monitoring stations (DRMS).  Also, the state Government of Maharashtra have installed 2321 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) at  circle  level  including  86  in  the  Jalgaon  district.    Further,  there  are  9  Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) operational in Maharashtra, this radar network also covers some  parts  of  the  Jalgaon  Lok  Sabha  Constituency.  Details  of  these  are  given  in Annexure I.
-  The in-situ Ocean Observation Network have been enhanced with the deployment of 31 Argo floats, 5 surface drifters, maintenance of 17 coastal Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler  (ADCP)  moorings,  3  equatorial  current  meter  moorings,  and  3  XBT (Expendable  Bathythermographs)  transects,  alongside  commissioning  15  GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) receivers at tide gauge sites and establishing 14 new  tide  stations.  The  Wave-rider  network  has  been  expanded  to  17  platforms, including a new buoy in Mauritius, while the GNSS- (Strong Motion Accelerometers) SMA network in  the  Andaman &  Nicobar  Islands  has  been  strengthened  with  an additional GNSS station at East Island.
-  To enable advanced real-time modelling, INCOIS has commissioned HPC-Tarang, a high-performance computing system dedicated to operational ocean forecasting.
-  In the Himalayas, integrated glacio-hydrological monitoring systems with AWS and WLRs (Water  Level  Recorders)  have  been  established  in  the  Chandra  Basin  and extended to Arunachal Pradesh, supported by advanced remote sensing and xDEMbased tools for glacier mass balance estimation.
-  Seismic networks have expanded to 165 operational stations nationwide, including extensive coverage in Maharashtra (15 in number). Details of seismic observatories in Maharashtra are tabulated in Annexure I.
- (c) Yes Sir.
- (d) Measurable improvements have been achieved across weather, climate, ocean, seismic, and disaster forecast services provided to states and the concerned ministries. Forecast accuracy for severe weather events has improved by 40% in recent decades, with oneday-ahead  heavy  rainfall  warnings  during  the  2025  monsoon  reaching  85%  accuracy compared to 77% in 2020. Cold wave forecasts showed up to 65% gains in accuracy, while  thunderstorm  and  lightning  predictions  improved  by  53%.  Cyclone  forecasts demonstrated  better  track,  intensity,  and  landfall  predictions,  and  heatwave  forecasts gained two extra days of lead time with the same accuracy as earlier shorter forecasts. Ocean services strengthened through the optimal ocean observing network, unified ocean modelling framework for operational ocean prediction, sea level projection, and ocean re-analysis to build a Digital Twin of the Ocean that can be effectively used for disaster prediction. The sea level rise, extreme sea levels and tidal inundations generated from climate  change  scenarios  are  used  to  assess  the  impact  along  the  coastal  zones. Seismology services  advanced  with  a  denser  national  network,  enabling  detection  of earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and above, and completion of seismic microzonation for 12 cities, for risk mitigation.

A total of 9342 crore SMS has been sent since August 2021 and during recent cyclone 'MonTha', a total of 77.64 crore SMS sent to people. All these improvements have led to  significant  improvement  in  forecast  accuracy  of  severe  weather  events  and  also significant reduction in death toll. For example, due to cyclones, around 7000 people lost their lives in 1999 Odisha Super Cyclone while it has been reduced to less than 100 over entire region from impact of tropical cyclones during recent years. Accurate forecast of 1 cyclone saves around 1100 crore rupees in terms of expenditure towards payment of ex-gratia  to  kins  of  dead,  cost  towards  evacuation  and  savings  to  various  sectors  e,g Power, Marine, Aviation, Railways, etc. Similarly, heat wave related losses of lives have been reduced in recent years.

- (e) The outputs  of  the  PRITHVI  scheme  are  the  services  provided  covering  all  the  five components of earth system namely  atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere,  cryosphere and biosphere that improve the understating of the Earth System Sciences. These services include  weather  forecasts  (both  on  land  and  in  the  oceans)  and  warnings  for  various natural disasters like tropical cyclones, storm surge, floods, heat waves, thunderstorm and lightning; alerts for Tsunamis and monitoring of earthquakes, etc.

To improve India's disaster preparedness, agriculture and water resource management, the Government has fully organized an institutional  mechanism for strengthening the observational  network  and  adopting  new  techniques  and  technology  to  integrate  and assimilate  all  types  of  data  through  all  computational  and  modelling  supports  for generating forecasts and warnings at a more granular scale of various severe weather events affecting the region.

Ministry through the India Meteorological Department (IMD) follows necessary steps and action in coordination with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and  Centre  of  Development  of  Telematics  (C-DOT)  for  the  dissemination  and communication of the warnings. As per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), IMD is generating Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) alerts using SACHET platform for severe weather events like Heavy Rainfall, Cyclone, Lightning, Thunderstorm, Dust storm etc. These alerts are disseminated by State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to geo targeted users via SMS. These alerts are also disseminated through SACHET website and  SACHET mobile app. IMD's CAP feeds are also disseminated to Global MultiHazard Alert System (GMAS), Google, AccuWeather and Apple.

Bharat Sarkar has launched the Gram Panchayat Level Weather Forecasting (GPLWF) initiative recently. IMD, in collaboration with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), launched GPLWF for nearly all Gram Panchayats in India on 24th October 2024. These forecasts are accessible on digital platforms such as e-Gramswaraj (https://egramswaraj.gov.in/),  the  Meri  panchayat  app,  e-Manchitra  of  MoPR,  and Mausamgram of IMD (https://mausamgram.imd.gov.in/).

State  agencies  (Central  Water  Commission,  State  Irrigation  Departments,  SDMAs, Water Resource Departments, Agriculture & Water Boards, Canal & Command Area Authorities  and  Inter-State  Water  Boards)  use  PRITHVI  outputs  for  water  resource management  by  integrating  forecasts  into  reservoir  operations,  flood  and  drought preparedness, and irrigation planning. Reservoir authorities regulate releases based on inflow predictions, while flood-prone regions receive early warnings for timely action. Seasonal  outlooks  guide  groundwater  recharge  and  water  rationing,  and  irrigation departments schedule canal releases to optimize distribution. Basin-level forecasts also support inter-state water sharing, making PRITHVI a key tool for efficient and resilient water management.

## Annexure I

## Details of the Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) in Maharashtra

|   S.No | State       | Location                         |
|--------|-------------|----------------------------------|
|      1 | Maharashtra | Mumbai                           |
|      2 | Maharashtra | Nagpur                           |
|      3 | Maharashtra | IITM Solapur                     |
|      4 | Maharashtra | Veravali                         |
|      5 | Maharashtra | Mumbai, Juhu (IITM*)             |
|      6 | Maharashtra | Mumbai, Panvel (IITM)            |
|      7 | Maharashtra | Mumbai, Kalyan, Dombivali (IITM) |
|      8 | Maharashtra | Mumbai, Vasai, Virar (IITM)      |
|      9 | Maharashtra | Mahabaleshwar (IITM)             |

## Details of Seismic observatories in Maharashtra

|   S N | Station    |   Latitude ( o N) |   Longitude ( o E) | Date of Installation   | Date of Upgradation /Modernisation   |
|-------|------------|-------------------|--------------------|------------------------|--------------------------------------|
|     1 | Akola      |           20.7017 |            77.0146 | 25.04.1983             | 19.11.2015                           |
|     2 | Karad      |           17.3077 |            74.1835 | 01.01.1970             | 21.11.2015                           |
|     3 | Latur      |           18.4104 |            76.5333 | 20.12.1993             | 24.11.2015                           |
|     4 | Mumbai     |           18.8975 |            72.8127 | 01.01.1899             | 20.10.2015                           |
|     5 | Nagpur     |           21.1699 |            79.0509 | 08.12.1988             | 14.06.2016                           |
|     6 | Pune       |           18.53   |            73.849  | 01.01.1949             | 21.12.2007                           |
|     7 | Solapur    |           17.6703 |            75.9229 | 11.07.2021             | 11.07.2021                           |
|     8 | Hingoli    |           19.6542 |            77.0943 | 14.07.2021             | 14.07.2021                           |
|     9 | Nashik     |           20.0299 |            73.7983 | 18.07.2021             | 18.07.2021                           |
|    10 | Palghar    |           20.0348 |            72.9133 | 22.07.2021             | 22.07.2021                           |
|    11 | Taliye     |           17.3419 |            73.7829 | 04.01.2022             | 04.01.2022                           |
|    12 | Govare     |           17.3468 |            73.7379 | 21.12.2021             | 21.12.2021                           |
|    13 | Panderpani |           17.2692 |            73.7623 | 06-02-2024             | 06-02-2024                           |
|    14 | Pathurpunj |           17.3011 |            73.6991 | 06-02-2024             | 06-02-2024                           |
|    15 | Atoli      |           17.2898 |            73.7686 | 06-02-2024             | 06-02-2024                           |

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