Forecast on Phailin was "more or less" accurate: IMD

Despite international agencies predicting Phailin as a 'super cyclone', the Indian Meteorological Department stuck to its stand that its intensity would be modest than the one witnessed by Odisha in 1999, and today it said its forecast was "more or less" accurate.

"Being a national meteorological department we cannot predict the way other agencies do as this will lead to a panic like situation. We stuck to our stand and told the media what we have been saying since the start. Our predictions proved to be more or less accurate," said IMD chief L S Rathore.

Many international agencies including the US Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center had termed Phailin as deadly as the super cyclone.

IMD had predicted it to be a 'very severe cyclone' and refused to categorise it as a 'super cyclone'.

He also said that the department took a series of measures in the past few years to get accurate predictions.

"Since the XI Five Year Plan, we have taken series of measures. We have been improving our observation system, which has helped to better define the initial condition.

"Development of human resources has also helped to a large extent," he added.

He noted that creation of a separate Ministry of Earth Sciences was also crucial as this led to better interactions and transfer of operational systems.