NEW DELHI: A day after home minister Amit Shah told the Parliament that Kerala government did not act on prior warning of a possible natural calamity, IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra Thursday said the Met department had issued an ‘orange alert‘ a day before disaster in Wayanad on July 29.
Though an ‘orange alert’ – which means “be prepared for action and do not wait for a red alert” – is adequate to galvanise actions on the ground to minimise the impact of extreme weather events, especially as the district received significantly more rainfall than predicted by the Met department, experts have flagged the real problem as the multiplicity of agencies that continue to work in silos.
Records show that though ‘red alert’ was issued on the day of landslides on July 30 morning, other multiple prior warnings of heavy rainfall days before the incident could have sensitised the district administration. “The long-range forecast issued on July 25 indicated good rainfall activity along the west coast and central parts of the country from July 25 to Aug 1. We issued a ‘yellow’ warning on July 25, which continued until July 29, when we issued an ‘orange’ warning,” added Mohapatra.
He said ‘red’ warning was issued by IMD on July 30 morning as very heavy rainfall (up to 20 cm) was expected, noting that Kerala had been witnessing continuous rainfall activity and “accumulation of rainfall” was an important factor behind landslides.
Acting on prior warnings has, invariably, been a problem with experts pointing out that agencies continue to work in isolation and it becomes an obstacle in taking preventive measures.
Asked about the problem, Madhavan Rajeevan, former secretary of ministry of earth sciences, said, “As far as natural disasters are concerned, different agencies have different mandates. For example, IMD provides rainfall warning but Geological Survey of India gives landslides’ warning and Central Water Commission gives alerts on floods. My point is all these institutions should work together on an operational basis.”
Rajeevan, vice-chancellor of Bengaluru’s Atria University, told TOI that India needs “multi-institutional framework for developing robust landslide prediction systems”. He said, “We know the science of landslides well. We need to convert it into good services.”
In the backdrop of incidents in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where over a dozen were killed after separate incidents of extremely heavy rainfall, Mohapatra said warnings like Kerala were in place for both states.
Though an ‘orange alert’ – which means “be prepared for action and do not wait for a red alert” – is adequate to galvanise actions on the ground to minimise the impact of extreme weather events, especially as the district received significantly more rainfall than predicted by the Met department, experts have flagged the real problem as the multiplicity of agencies that continue to work in silos.
Records show that though ‘red alert’ was issued on the day of landslides on July 30 morning, other multiple prior warnings of heavy rainfall days before the incident could have sensitised the district administration. “The long-range forecast issued on July 25 indicated good rainfall activity along the west coast and central parts of the country from July 25 to Aug 1. We issued a ‘yellow’ warning on July 25, which continued until July 29, when we issued an ‘orange’ warning,” added Mohapatra.
He said ‘red’ warning was issued by IMD on July 30 morning as very heavy rainfall (up to 20 cm) was expected, noting that Kerala had been witnessing continuous rainfall activity and “accumulation of rainfall” was an important factor behind landslides.
Acting on prior warnings has, invariably, been a problem with experts pointing out that agencies continue to work in isolation and it becomes an obstacle in taking preventive measures.
Asked about the problem, Madhavan Rajeevan, former secretary of ministry of earth sciences, said, “As far as natural disasters are concerned, different agencies have different mandates. For example, IMD provides rainfall warning but Geological Survey of India gives landslides’ warning and Central Water Commission gives alerts on floods. My point is all these institutions should work together on an operational basis.”
Rajeevan, vice-chancellor of Bengaluru’s Atria University, told TOI that India needs “multi-institutional framework for developing robust landslide prediction systems”. He said, “We know the science of landslides well. We need to convert it into good services.”
In the backdrop of incidents in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where over a dozen were killed after separate incidents of extremely heavy rainfall, Mohapatra said warnings like Kerala were in place for both states.
Source Agencies
