Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
Also called: INCOIS · Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is based in Hyderabad and studies and watches the seas around India. It gives ocean state forecasts, which tell people how high the waves will be and how rough the sea will get. It also warns of high waves, storm surge (seawater pushed inland by a cyclone) and tsunamis. It also gives potential fishing zone advisories, which tell fishermen where fish are likely to gather. It houses the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), which has worked since October 2007. The centre uses seismic stations (which record earthquakes), bottom pressure recorders on the sea floor and tide gauges. It can issue a warning within about 10 minutes. Since 2011 it has been a UNESCO-IOC regional tsunami service provider for the whole Indian Ocean.
Example
India faces tsunamis from two source zones: the Andaman-Sumatra zone in the east and the Makran zone (off the coasts of Pakistan and Iran) in the west. When a large undersea earthquake strikes in either zone, the ITEWC at INCOIS, Hyderabad, checks whether it can cause a tsunami and alerts coastal areas. The 2004 tsunami (M 9.1, off Sumatra) hit Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands hard. India had no tsunami warning system then. The centre was set up after it.
Don't confuse with
- India Meteorological Department (IMD): IMD forecasts weather, and through RSMC New Delhi it tracks and names cyclones. INCOIS focuses on the ocean itself: waves, tsunamis and fishing zones.