The ‘failure’ of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to update the bulletins from time to time during Cyclone Gulab has drawn flak from a retired meteorologist. He has sent a letter through email to the Director General of IMD Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, wondering what prevented the IMD from issuing bulletins at regular intervals.
The retired Meteorologist T. Krishna Bhagavanudu of Visakhapatnam noted in his letter that the official website of IMD, New Delhi, had issued the ‘All India Weather Summary and Forecast Bulletin’ at 8.45 p.m. on Sunday. The next bulletin of IMD was issued at 8.45 a.m. on Monday. This was 12 hours after the crossing of Cyclone Gulab, the previous night.
He expressed disbelief that the IMD, with all the technology at its disposal, failed to issue bulletins after every couple of hours, at least during the cyclone. Local TV channels had already declared, early in the morning, that the Cyclone Gulab has already crossed.
The public were in the clutches of the natural disaster and if, something happened to them, due to lack of information, who would be responsible for it, he questioned. He said that the facts should be made available to the public for the inordinate delay in the dissemination of cyclone information by the IMD.
He demanded that the authorities update the IMD website regularly for the benefit of the public.
