Mobile phone screens across Delhi lit up in the early hours of Thursday when residents received an SMS alert by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), warning of thunderstorm, lightning and gusty winds of up to 45 km/hr in several parts of the city in the next 24 hours.
The alert was issued as part of the newly created Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), made operational in March by NDMA, which collates all weather-related alerts on a common platform by five key alert-generating national agencies before disseminating this information in the form of an SMS for weather phenomenon such as floods, cyclones, thunderstorms, and heatwaves. The platform uses a geo-targetted area – in this instance, defining the area within the geographical boundary of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, with users located within that area receiving the SMS.
While the feature to send the SMS is currently being handled manually, it will soon be made automated, with texts sent to different states, depending on the category of the weather alert in that area – yellow, orange or red, officials said. The Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) yellow alert category is the most basic warning, issued to alert the public of a weather phenomenon in the region. An orange alert asks for the public to be prepared regarding a weather phenomenon, while red, the highest form of alert, asks people to be most vigilant.
A senior NDMA official said CAP had been developed in collaboration with the Union ministry of telecommunication and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT). The programme collates weather-related alerts from national agencies such as IMD, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), the Central Water Commission (CWC), Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE) and the Forest Survey of India (FSI).
“All these five agencies, the state government and the state disaster management authorities have access to CAP. While the SMS sent will mention NDMA’s name, it can be triggered or sent by any of these five agencies, along with the state governments. In this case, the Delhi alert was issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority,” said the official, on condition of anonymity.
{{/usCountry}}“All these five agencies, the state government and the state disaster management authorities have access to CAP. While the SMS sent will mention NDMA’s name, it can be triggered or sent by any of these five agencies, along with the state governments. In this case, the Delhi alert was issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority,” said the official, on condition of anonymity.
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The SMS alert on Thursday read, “Thunderstorm with Lightning accompanied by gusty wind (speed 35-45 kmph) is very likely to occur at most places over Central Delhi, East Delhi, New Delhi, North Delhi, North East Delhi, North West Delhi, South Delhi, South West Delhi, West Delhi in next 24 hours.”
NDMA says while the public cannot access CAP, a mobile application called Sachet has been launched to showcase the colour-coded warning and the nature of weather alerts across the country to people at any given time.
“The application was made operational in March alongside CAP, and can be downloaded by the public using the NDMA website or the Google Playstore. It will show the nature of the alert, the precautions to take, the agency that issued it and the time it was issued,” the official said, adding that they were planning on working on the next stage of alerts, which will be cell broadcasts. The other platforms which can be integrated with such a system, included television, radio and public screens on highways, railway stations and airports.
“Cell broadcasts will consist of a message popping up on the screen in a bright colour, with a voice message also playing once it is clicked. While the SMS can be ignored, the cell broadcast message will have to be acknowledged,” the NDMA official added.
CAP was formally launched by NDMA during the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) 2023, held in the Capital on March 10 and 11. It is being scaled up now.
Kunal Satyarthi, joint secretary at the NDMA, said the platform allows them to disseminate information in a much faster and effective way.
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“The intention is to generate awareness about disasters among masses and at the same time, ensure effective action that can save lives and livelihoods. It works on the five parameters that it is proactive, done in real-time, can be delivered over multiple media platforms, covers vernacular languages and is geo-targetted,” he said.
An IMD official said they were unaware that the NDMA was issuing such alerts, but added that weather forecasts are shared with the body, along with state disaster management authorities and district magistrates to further disseminate information. “The purpose is to inform these bodies to be vigilant, which can then disseminate this information to the public. We also share these alerts with the public through our own social media channels,” the official said.
Such a mechanism to issue alerts via SMS has been in the works for almost five years now. In a meeting held between NDMA, IMD and the Union home ministry in 2018, it was first decided to coordinate with telecom service providers to send localised weather alerts, particularly for events such storms or cyclones.
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