Every year, several fishermen in the country die in sea when caught in severe weather hazards like high tides and waves. However, with the launch of an App “Sagar Vani” that would provide ocean information services like alerts and advisories when such an adverse situation is approaching, the Government hopes to save many of them.
The App has been developed by the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO)-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to be implemented by technology and consulting firm Gaian Solutions India Pvt. ltd.
Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that it would provide ocean information services for the benefit of various user communities in the country. “The services are more fruitfully utilized when the advisories reaches the end user in timely manner and in user readable format,” said the Minister after launching the App at the event to mark the Foundation Day of the MoES.
The App will disseminate advisories that include potential fishing zone (PFZ) advisories, ocean state forecast (OSF), high wave alerts and tsunami early warnings directly from the lab to the end user in several local languages. The software will be beneficial for marine fisher folk population of 3,999,214 living in the 3288 marine fishing villages and 1511 marine fish landing centres. For the first time in India, we are also using television and cable network and social mediums for topical and alert dissemination services, said a senior official from the INCOIS.
The life Time Excellence Award for this year was awarded to Professor K Gopalan for his significant contribution in the field of isotope geosciences while the national awards for ocean science & technology, atmospheric science & technology and geoscience & technology to Prof PN Vinayachandran, K Krishnamoorthy and Professsor KS Krishna respectively.
The Young Researcher Awards was presented to Dr Dhanya C T and Dr Vikram Vishal for their outstanding work in earth science & technology. In addition, certificates of merit was presented to the scientists from MoES.