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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

could provide such information, in- mit the PFZ, OSF and disaster warn- Bengal and Srikakulam and Vijayana-
cluding the disaster warnings when the ings to fishermen with GAGAN system garam Districts of Andhra Pradesh
fishermen move away from the coast consisting of three geosynchronous Coasts, Cyclonic Storm ‘VAYU’ over
beyond 10-12 km (typical ranges of mo- satellites. Northeast and adjoining East central
bile phones and VHF). That remained as GAGAN foot-print covers the en- Arabian Sea, Depression over north-
a major limitation in disseminating the tire Indian Ocean round the clock. west Bay of Bengal off north Odisha
information to fishermen who go in the To receive the messages transmitted — West Bengal coasts, Cyclonic Storm
sea beyond 50 nautical miles; some- through the GAGAN satellites, INCOIS ‘HIKAA’ over northeast and adjoining
times up to 300 nautical miles and be- together with AAI developed a low- east central Arabian sea and Cyclonic
yond to conduct multiday fishing. cost GAGAN system-enabled GEMINI Storm ‘BULBUL’ over northwest and
This lacuna was severely felt during (GAGAN Enabled Mariner’s Instru- adjoining West-Central Bay of Bengal.
the Ockhi cyclone in 2017, when fisher- ment for Navigation and Information) Issuing press releases also disseminat-
men went out, for deep-sea fishing be- device and electronically designed and ed other alerts like Snowfall over hills,
fore the onset of the cyclone and could manufactured by a private industry hailstorms and Western Disturbance.
not be informed about the developing Acord, Bangalore under Make in India
cyclone. This communication gap re- Program. echnology is not only reaching
sulted in loss of life, serious injuries to fishermen during distress, it is
those rescued and severe damages to T also now reaching farmers. Con-
fishing boats and fishing gear. For seamless and sidering the urgent need of sharing
To overcome this difficulty, Indian effective dissemination of the agro-meteorological knowledge
National Centre for Ocean Information among researchers, policy makers,
Services (INCOIS), an autonomous body emergency information and industry and farmers to learn from
under the Ministry of Earth Sciences communication on disaster each other, identify the technologies/
(MoES) joined hands with Airports practices and develop a roadmap for
Authority of India (AAI) to utilize the warnings, Potential Fishing risk management, the Association of
GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Zones and Ocean States Agro Meteorologists (AAM) organized
Navigation) satellite system to trans- a 3-day International Symposium on
Forecasts to fishermen, the “Advances in Agro Meteorology for
government has launched Managing Climatic Risks of Farmers”
(INAGMET-2019) at Jawaharlal Nehru
the Gagan Enabled University, New Delhi during the year
Mariner’s Instrument 2019.
• Risking lives During 2018-19, 37 The symposium was jointly or-
fishermen from West Bengal lost for Navigation and ganized with India Meteorological
their lives while fishing in the Bay Department, Indian Centre of Agri-
Information device cultural Research (ICAR)-Indian Agricul-
tural Research Institute and Jawaharlal
The GEMINI device receives and Nehru University.
transfers the data received from GA- A MoU was also signed between
GAN satellite to a mobile through Blue- India and the UK on Cooperation in
tooth communication. A mobile appli- Weather and Climate Sciences during
cation developed by INCOIS decodes the year under which another agree-
and displays the information in nine ment for weather and climate science
regional languages. for service partnership has also been
During the year, various alerts and signed between India and the UK.
timely warnings were issued regarding Another MoU that has been signed is
Cyclonic storms, Heavy rainfall warn- between India and Argentina on Ant-
ing, Sea condition, Storm Surge Warn- arctic cooperation. The MoU will help
ing, Damage Expected, pre-cyclone scientific cooperation on projects in the
alerts and expected damage, etc. The fields of Earth sciences, as well as those
alerts were issued for Cyclonic Storm related to the protection and conserva-
‘PABUK’ over Andaman Sea and neigh- tion of the natural environment of Ant-
bourhood, Cyclone ‘FANI’ over South- arctica and the Southern Oceans.
west Bay and adjoining Southeast of
Bengal, Cyclone Alert for Odisha, West LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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