India well-equipped to issue Tsunami alerts, says official

New Delhi, Mar 13: Learning a lesson from the 2004 disaster that hit the southern coastal states of India, the country has put in place an effective system to alert about any possible Tsunamis, a senior official of the government was quoted as saying in a report.

Shailesh Naik, Secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has been reported by the PTI as saying that the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services has a world-class tsunami warning system.

He was quoted as saying, "This has been proved now, as we were able to issue the first bulletin just seven minutes after the massive quake in Japan, ruling out a tsunami threat for the Indian Ocean, where as the American tsunami warning system, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA )) issued its first alert 12 minutes after the massive earthquake near the coast of Honshu."

Naik was also quoted as saying, "Following a big earthquake, the system can issue a tsunami alert within in 10 minutes not only in India but also for other neighouring countries."

Tsunamis are again back in focus after the large-scale devastation it has caused in the north-eastern coast of Japan on Mar 11. It was triggered by a preceding earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter scale. Nearly 10,000 are feared dead.

India has also bore the brunt of such a natural disaster in 2004 when southern coast of the country was hit by a fierce tsunami that swept away many coastal settlements in the area and killed thousands while rendering many others homeless.

OneIndia News