Tsunami Warning System

The Indian Tsunami Warning System established by the Ministry at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad has been recognized as the Regional Tsunami Service Provider (RSTP) for the Indian Ocean Region by UNESCO to provide warning to countries of the Indian Ocean. The RTSP of India along with Australia and Indonesia assumed full operational responsibility since March 2013. This includes the service of level-2 tsunami advisories for the Indian Ocean. The Indian Tsunami Warning System is equipped to issue warnings within 10 minutes of occurrence of earthquakes. In 2016, The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) monitored 39 earthquakes of magnitude 6.5 MW during the period 1 January - 31 December 2016. Out of these 6 earthquakes, 1 significant earthquake (MW 7.9) occurred in the Indian Ocean region. These earthquakes could not generate any Tsunami and hence no threat bulletins were issued for India.

A Tsunami Mock drill was conducted during 07-08 September 2016 involving all countries on the Indian Ocean rim. Around 40,000 people were evacuated during the drill from around 350 villages of 33 districts of 8 coastal States/UTs. INCOIS issued bulletins to National and Regional contacts for two days. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Coastal States/UTs participated in the mock drill.