INCOIS to expand tsunami-ready programme to Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

After successfully helping 26 villages in Odisha earn recognition under the UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme (TRRP), the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is now preparing to extend the initiative to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, one of the regions most vulnerable to tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

The Hyderabad-based scientific institute working under the aegis of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has identified around 30 villages in the first phase of the programme in coordination with the Directorate of Disaster Management, A&N Islands.

The initiative aims to strengthen community resilience through the preparation of tsunami hazard, inundation and evacuation maps, installation of signages, development of communication strategies and public awareness campaigns.

Senior scientist B. Ajay Kumar said the islands would be the first region impacted if a tsunami were triggered by a major earthquake in the Sumatra-Andaman subduction zone. “People living here must be prepared to react quickly and move to safety whenever such an event occurs. We will also utilise the existing satellite communication network established across the islands,” he said.

To strengthen early warning systems, INCOIS has already installed about 35 interconnected Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sensors equipped with sirens across the islands to monitor ocean-floor earthquakes. Scientists are working to further reduce tsunami warning dissemination time for India’s east coast to less than five minutes from the response time of around 10 minutes or less.

It is also planning to establish a regional centre in the islands and lay a 150-km underwater cable fitted with multiple sensors to monitor seismic activity on the ocean floor at depths of 2,000-2,500 feet.

INCOIS director T.M. Balakrishnan Nair and A&N’s Disaster Management Secretary Pallavi Sarkar highlighted the need for stronger community preparedness, inter-agency coordination and effective use of scientific information for tsunami risk reduction. A TRRP training workshop was recently held at Sri Vijaya Puram to build the technical and institutional capacity of officials and community representatives involved in implementing the programme.

Scientists M.V. Sunanda, H. Shiva Kumar and Gaurav Khairnar serving as resource persons demonstrated the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) tools for preparing hazard and evacuation maps, identifying vulnerable locations, mapping critical infrastructure and planning evacuation routes and safe zones during the workshop.

Mr. Ajay Kumar said the TRRP follows a structured framework comprising 12 indicators that integrate scientific information, institutional preparedness and community participation to improve coastal communities’ ability to respond effectively to tsunami warnings.