India to Provide Tsunami Warning in Sri Lanka, Seychelles

NEW DELHI: India has extended its early tsunami warning services to Sri Lanka and Seychelles with the launch of integrated ocean information services at the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) Ministerial conference held here Friday.

Inaugurating the 2nd Ministerial conference of RIMES, Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan said that the 2004 tsunami caught India unawares but today we are much better equipped and New Delhi has now world class early warning systems capable of disseminating alerts and warnings within 10 minutes, not only our own country but to neighbors too.

This tsunami early warning service system was developed by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS), in collaboration with RIMES. Such a service to Maldives has already been operationalized. The issue of having such a system was raised in a meeting of RIMES, a Bangkok-based multi-governmental organisation, of which India is a member.

The conference also adopted a Master Plan for 2016-2020 which includes a country specific capacity building priorities of member and collaborating countries for user-centred early warning for hazard.

The Master Plan 2016-2020 aims to integrate seamless forecast and early warning information into planning and decision-making for reducing risks from various hazards and maximising opportunities associated with climate. RIMES was established in 2009 to provide user-relevant early warning services to its member states and others.

Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Chair, RIMES Council Shailesh Nayak reiterated the need for developing systems that can use state-of-the-art knowledge to serve humanity. Ministry of Earth Sciences is supporting for expansion of the targeted efforts, under RIMES umbrella, towards research, education, communication, and the application of proven knowledge science and technology.

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