The weather department couldn’t be held responsible for State authorities not doing enough to heed forecasts of recent severe weather events such as storms and lightning strikes that killed several in north India last month, according to Union science minister Harsh Vardhan.
“The India Meteorological Department has given warnings well in advance to all concerned agencies in States…it’s up to their departments to ensure that precautions are taken,” he said at a conference to recapitulate his ministry’s achievements over four years.
He added that ever since supercomputers and Doppler Weather Radars were deployed to forecast weather, there was an improvement in disseminating weather warnings. “If you compare the Super Cyclone in Odisha (in 1999) and the speed and quality of recent warnings about adverse weather events now, there is no comparison,” he added.
The investment in science and technology had gone up in the last four years and there was a 90% increase from 2009-10 to 2013-14 in funds allotted to the Department of Science and Technology, a release said.
