After an earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia’s west coast on April 11, India issued a tsunami warning for the entire Indian Ocean. The alert was later withdrawn, giving a major relief to the people in the coastal areas. M Shashidhar Reddy, vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, tells Sanjay Jog about India’s preparedness to handle such emergencies
How prepared were the various authorities concerned, after an initial tsunami alert was issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on April 11?
India established a state-of-the-art Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) in 2007 at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Hyderabad. This was done in the wake of the massive tsunami that hit India’s coastal areas in 2004. At that time, the country was totally unprepared without any kind of an early warning capability.
The initial bulletin contains preliminary information, giving the magnitude, the epicentre and the depth at which the earthquake has occurred. It also contains information if the earthquake could trigger a tsunami. We followed the same process on April 11. The first bulletin was put out at 2:16 pm after the earthquake occurred at 2:08 pm.
At NDMA, we reacted immediately by contacting our National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) battalions stationed in the country’s coastal regions. We asked them to be on standby, so that they could be deployed as and when required by the state or district administrations. Over 200 NDRF men were immediately kept in readiness at the Hindon Air Force Station near Delhi to be airlifted to Port Blair and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, if required.
The cabinet secretariat and the ministry of home affairs were closely monitoring the situation. The army, the air force, the navy and the coast guard were all alerted. Some formations were kept in readiness in case of an eventuality.
How was the situation tackled?
We had stated a possibility of the earthquake triggering a tsunami. There were only some parts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that were issued a ‘warning’ for a tsunami with a travel time of 20-30 minutes. I would like to add here that it was only an ‘alert’ for the east coast and some parts of the west coast, and a ‘watch’ for the other parts of the west coast. However, there was no change in the sea level and no abnormal activity was observed, which could indicate a tsunami.
It was a great relief when the expected time lapsed and there was no trace of any developing tsunami, even around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Thereafter, we communicated to the states that the tsunami was not going to happen.
We also got information from our experts that the earthquake had resulted from the lateral movement of the plates, whereas a tsunami could only be caused if there is a convergence thrust (vertical movement) of the plates.
How was the response from those states and union territories that were affected by the 2004 tsunami?
There is a system of communicating information generated through bulletins by TEWS to all the coastal states and union territories. The administrations in all the coastal districts were immediately alerted. There is also a standard procedure that the states follow. They were alert and ready to tackle any eventuality.
How was the coordination between NDMA and the other organisations?
By and large, the coordination between NDMA and all other agencies was excellent. NDMA was in constant touch with the control rooms of most of the states. TEWS, NDRF and other organisations, including the army, got constant feedback about the entire situation. In fact, we got a direct feedback from the control room in Andaman and Nicobar Islands that the local authorities had swung into action.
What were the major shortcomings identified by NDMA? How do you plan to overcome these?
This needs careful feedback from the states. We are requesting the states to share with us their observations. It was by God’s grace that the earthquake did not trigger a tsunami. But I feel it gave us an opportunity — like a mock exercise — to assess our capabilities to prepare for responses and identify our gaps and shortcomings. Further, it gave us a chance to improve our state of preparedness. It was also a lesson for the people of the country. The whole country was focused on the incident, and therefore, creating awareness about tsunami in particular and disasters in general.
What are the major initiatives taken and implemented by the government to tackle such events?
As I stated earlier, TEWS is capable of giving us sufficient lead time for response action to be initiated for evacuation of people. NDMA has issued guidelines for the management of tsunami in the past. As far as earthquakes are concerned, which are quick onset disasters without any kind of early warning, NDMA believes we need to focus more on the matter. A series of mock exercises in a sustained and continuous manner in all the states, which fall under seismic zones V, IV and also III, will have to be done. However, it is a well-known fact that when an earthquake occurs, the collapse of buildings kill people. So, construction of safe buildings is absolutely necessary.
In this context, NDMA has initiated a lot of awareness programmes through electronic and print media, as well as radio. But this needs to be done at a much larger scale — not only by NDMA, but all the vulnerable states. People have to understand they would pay very dearly, possibly even their lives, if they do not insist on earthquake-resistant construction codes to be followed.
It applies to individual owners and purchasers of group houses or apartments. I would also like to mention here that to ensure disaster-resilient construction; the Reserve Bank of India has issued advisory to all banks for verification of compliance to the National Building Code, 2005, while approving loans for any construction. In this regard, after due deliberations, they were issued for compliance on May 12, 2011. Besides, there are other initiatives that we are contemplating on, including formulation of national retrofitting policy and guidelines and mitigation measures for safe ground open-storeyed buildings.
