The Hindu : `India prone to natural disasters'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 24, 2002

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`India prone to natural disasters'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI MARCH 23. During the decade 1991-2000, nearly six lakh people lost their lives owing to meteorological and hydrological disasters all over the world. Asia, which occupies one-third of the global area, accounted for 80 per cent of these deaths.

Governments all over the world were engaged in disaster mitigation plans taking into account the wide range of weather, climate and water-related phenomena that may affect the region. Three global and 25 regional, specialised meteorological centres provided weather forecasts and generated regionally focussed products, according to Y.E.A. Raj, Director, Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, and P.V. Sankaran, assistant meteorologist.

In a paper presented to mark World Meteorological Day, celebrated today, they noted that India was prone to several natural disasters and was vulnerable to the following disastrous weather events: severe thunderstroms, including hailstorms and occasional tornadoes over northeast India; heat and cold waves in the north; sand or dust storms in the northwest; snowfall or avalanches in the Himalayan region; tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall and storm surges in the east coast; floods or droughts in several parts of the country and localised floods in basins of large rivers.

On an average, five to six tropical cyclones formed over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea out of which two or three affected the coastal belt every year.

Some of these turn out to be `destructive', like the Super Cyclone that hit Orissa in 1999.

The country was also vulnerable to earthquake activity. The Himalayan frontal arc, the Chaman fault region and most of the northeast were rated as `severe' in respect of seismic hazard.

The recent earthquake in Gujarat had an intensity of 6.9 on the Richter scale and even the Tamil Nadu-Pondicherry region felt a tremor last year.

The two meteorologists explained that the Indian Meteorological Department had a well-knit observational network with each State having a meteorological centre that coordinated with the state administration in disaster management.

A chain of 10 cyclone detection radars covering the entire coastline could detect and track cyclonic storms within a distance of 400 km from the coast.

A cyclone warning dissemination system based on INSAT was commissioned in 1986. It now had 153 receiving stations.

In Chennai, a new Doppler Weather Radar, with state-of-the- art technology, capable of providing data on a large number of cyclone parameters was recently installed.

But, they noted, community preparedness was the only ``practical solution'' to meet the challenges and risks from extreme weather and climate anomalies.

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