SHILLONG: Governor K.K. Paul on Thursday lamented that none of the nations across the globe have been able to develop a technology which can accurately forecast occurrence of any natural disaster.
“Forecasting on the occurrence of any natural disaster is being done in a lop-sided manner. This has affected the credibility of many organisations which are responsible for forecasting the occurrence of these natural disasters,” Paul said while delivering his inaugural address at the regional conference on ‘Geo Informatics for early warning of disasters with special emphasis on North Eastern region’ organised by the Indian Society of Geomatics at NEHU Multi-Convention Centre here.
Citing the case of an earthquake that hit a city in Italy in 2009, the Governor said that the Italian scientists had predicted that the tremors would not cause any kind of damage.
“When the tremors occurred, a total number of 300 people died. This led to major uproar against the scientists who made the forecast,” the Governor said, while adding that six scientists were finally prosecuted and were sentenced to six years’ imprisonment on charges of manslaughter.
“This particular incident only goes to prove the importance of having a technology which can give an accurate forecast of the occurrence of any natural disaster since any flaw in the forecast will lead to loss of precious lives,” he said.
The Governor, however, observed that predictions alone would not be useful unless they are translated into a warning and action plan which should reach the people in a timely manner.
On the North eastern which is prone to various natural and man-made disasters such as floods, landslides and earthquakes, the Governor informed that during the recent Governors’ Conference, he had suggested that the project on Early Earthquake Warning (EEW) funded by the Department of Earth Sciences which is implemented by IIT Roorkee should also be implemented in the region.
“This project has made good progress and could be replicated in the region. The project involves installing of earthquake warning sensors in earthquake origin (epicentre) prone areas and interpretation of the data generated by a suitable technical institute. I had suggested that a similar project costing Rs. 4 crore could be assigned to the NEC to cover the region under EEW system,” he said.
Pointing out that some material damage seem to be unavoidable, especially in the case of very large and infrequent events, he said that in some cases, loss of human lives could have been avoided if proper precautions and measures had been in place.