India has learnt no lessons?

Doubts stay on our disaster readiness. Tell us your experiences

It’s been a year since tsunami struck, yet there remains a question mark on India's preparedness in the sphere of tsunami warning.

HT Image

Soon after the catastrophe, the Centre quickly moved to set up a Rs 125 crore Tsunami Warning Centre (TWC), which is expected to become operational at Hyderabad by September 2007.

One of the key mandates of TWC is the preparation of seawater inundation and vulnerability maps based on inputs and imagery from the areas battered by the last Tsunami. This aspect is vital for minimising future casualties. However, this is not going to be available any sooner thanks to the blinkered manner various agencies of the Government function.

Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency carried out a survey by taking images of all the affected areas including the Andamans, with an airborne Digital camera and laser altometer, a day after the Tsunami.

But no one knows where these images are? State disaster management officials say that they have repeatedly sought the images from the Central Government so as to draw up their own action plan. "We are still waiting for the imagery, which would give vital inputs for future evacuation programme. We were told that the home ministry even did not have those pictures," said an official.