Focusing on various perspectives of disaster management especially in the context to Jharkhand, Deputy Director General, Regional Metrological Centre, Dr. S Bandyopadhyay during a day-long workshop titled ‘Weather forecast and early warning system for Jharkhand’ said that lightning and thunderstorm including nor’wester are the major disasters here.
Discussing elaborately about the main factors which are responsible for lightning and thunderstorm development in the State, Bandyopadhyay said, “lack of lightning detectors, rapid increase in counting of such incidents and moreover the exact cause of lightning which is still under research are some of the vital reasons.”
Bandyopadhyay gave a detailed presentation on ‘Advanced Weather Forecast and Early Warning System’ covering -- India Meteorological Department’s forecast spectrum, major weather systems affecting eastern India like monsoon system, tropical cyclone, local severe storm, western disturbances (WD), weather hazards, types of forecast, NWP Models, main steps in the forecast process, global framework of climate services vision which has impact on agriculture and food security, disaster risk reduction, water, health and energy to enhance the development, delivery and use of climate information in decision making including warning dissemination mechanism.
Emphasizing on global framework of climate services for enabling better management of the risks of climate variability, Bandyopadhyay added, “Agro sector and food security that is dependent on frequent weather forecast must be given prime importance with accurate data for better outcome.” Also, Bandyoupadhyay said that ‘Disaster Management’ resolves around 4R – Rescue, Relief, Rehabilitation and Readiness where ‘Readiness’ is the focal point.
Joint (Director), Department of Agriculture, Subhash Singh said that keeping farmers needs and requirements, a better communication between media and MET department can help the people associated with agro sector in a much broader way, hence attempts should be made that how maximum farmers can get inputs about weather updates on a daily basis to avert untoward incidents.
Meanwhile, BK Mandal, Director, MET Observatory Centre – Ranchi discussed about MET Services provided by MC Ranchi and the steps taken to bridge the communication gap, installation of equipments for accurate forecasting etc. while a technical session on interpretation of weather bulletins, nowcast warning and its accuracy was held by Scientist-B, RS Sharma.
