The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) is providing Tsunami services to 25 Indian ocean countries under the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) framework, Minister of Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan said in Rajya Sabha.

The ITEWC was established at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, an autonomous body under Ministry of Earth Sciences. The primary objective is to provide timely tsunami advisories to stakeholders.

“INCOIS has introduced several innovative concepts in tsunami modeling, mapping of coastal inundation, decision support system, SOPs to meet the emerging challenges and provide accurate and timely tsunami early warnings. INCOIS has established a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and strong motion accelerometers in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for quick and reliable estimation of source parameters for near source earthquakes,” the minister informed the Rajya Sabha.

“INCOIS has carried out Multi-hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM) along the mainland of Indian coastland MHVM atlas has been prepared. The ITEWC, INCOIS regularly conducts workshops, training sessions and tsunami mock exercises to create awareness and preparedness about the tsunamis. In addition to workshops and trainings for disaster managers, ITEWC is also coordinating with coastal States and Union Territories to implement tsunami ready programme, a concept introduced by Unesco, at community level,” Harsh Vardhan.

“Odisha has implemented the programme in two villages (Venkatraipur and Noliasahi) and based on the national board recommendation, IOC (UNESCO) recognized these villages as Tsunami ready communities,” he added further..