Men who predicted in 6 mintues that there was no tsunami threat

Their soldiers stand guard along the northern and western borders with fingers well trenched on the triggers of sophisticated rifles. But the Indian scientists ensure the safety of Pakistan from natural disasters like tsunamis and cyclones!

It may sound unbelievable to ordinary mortals but the truth is that the tsunami buoys and bottom pressure recorders developed by the scientists of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, protect all countries along the Indian Ocean Rim including Pakistan from the fury of the nature.

The tsunami buoys and bottom pressure recorders installed in the Arabian Sea (some 400 km off Mumbai Coast), Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean provide scientists of the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre at Hyderabad with real time data about the characteristics of the seas on round-the-clock basis.

“Any abnormalities noticed from the Coast of Makran adjoining Pakistan to the Malacca Straits are analysed by the scientists of the ITEWC, and the results are conveyed to the National Disaster Management Authority of the countries concerned. They will get nearly 20 minutes to launch the rescue and evacuation measures in the eventuality of a tsunami,” Dr Satish Shenoi, director, INCOIS, told DNA.

Dr Srinivas Kumar, head of ITEWC, Hyderabad, said his centre was in contact with all the tsunami monitoring centres along the Indian Ocean. “This help us to pick up any abnormalities in the seas ranging from Gulf of Malaca to the Makran Coast and detect the possibilities of a tsunami within seconds. All countries along the Indian Ocean Rim depend on us for early warningon tsunamis and cyclones originating in this region,” said Dr Kumar.

The bottom pressure recorders and buoys detect sea surface and bottom temperature, pressure, wind speed and direction and transfer the data in a flash of a second to the ITEWC. “These data are sufficient for us to find out whether the earthquake happening in the bottom of the ocean is tsunamigenic or not,” said Dr Shenoi.

Dr Shenoi said Wednesday’s earthquake near Sumatra was picked up by the ITEWC scientists at 2:08 pm. “Within six minutes we alerted all the countries along the Indian Ocean Rim. And my scientists could make out within minutes that the earthquake was not tsunamigenic and we accordingly informed the NDMA,” he said.

Interestingly, it was INCOIS which gave advance warning about Cyclone Thane which struck the East Coast in December 2011. “Not a single fisherman lost his life because they did not venture out into the sea because of our warning. Well, we could not prevent the trees from getting uprooted due to the cyclone. But we literally tamed Thane through our sharp forecast,” said a senior INCOIS scientist.

- DNA