The poor fishermen and members of the coastal community in three more countries along the African coast would thank India whenever they get a good catch fish and advance warning about impending cyclones, tsunami and surging waves. India has emerged as the leader and beacon of hope and security for all countries lying along the rim of the Indian Ocean as well as those in the Pacific Ocean region. The Ministerial meeting of Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Asia and Africa (RIMES) held at Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea last Friday saw ocean scientists of India unfurling an action plan for early warning forecast system for Comoros, Madagascar, and Mozambique.
The early warning system developed by the scientists of Hyderabad based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, an elite research institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, will see these countries as well as Papua New Guinea, a country lying along south western Pacific Ocean, receive free services like ocean forecast and early warming information on high waves, currents, winds, tides and sub-surface ocean conditions.
This is a great boon to these countries, the fortunes and misfortunes of which depend entirely on the vagaries of the ocean, said TM Balakrishnan Nair, head, Ocean Science and Information Services group, INCOIS, who represented the research centre in the RIMED meeting along with M Rajeevan, secretary, Ministry of Earth sciences, Government of India.
“The advance information system provided by INCOIS caters to end-users like fishermen, coastal population, tourism sector, coastal defence officials, marine police, port authorities, research institutions and offshore industries of these countries. Many of this customise ocean services are aimed towards safety at the sea, oil spill advisory services, high wave alerts, search and rescue operations, port warnings and forecast along the ship routes in addition to tsunami and storm surge warnings,” Dr Balakrishnan Nair told.
A host of nations including Maldives, Sri lanka and Seychelles are getting advance ocean information services offered by INCOIS. Papua New Guinea coming under the ambit of INCOIS means that India’s multi-pronged ocean information services have reached the Pacific Ocean too. It was a proud moment for India as the Ministerial council and the World Metrological Organisation lauded and placed on record the initiatives of INCOIS and India in providing ocean forecast and early warning services to Indian Ocean countries and taking a leadership in Ocean Services in the Indian Ocean Region, said Dr Nair.
The meeting was attended by Directors of Meteorology and Disaster Management belonging to 48 countries of Indian and Pacific Ocean Region.