New Delhi, April 11: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) conducted the Pre-Cyclone Exercise for the season April-June 2024 under the chairmanship of Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General, IMD in hybrid mode at Mausam Bhavan in New Delhi on Wednesday. The exercise was part of a biennial exercise conducted to take stock of the preparedness of various stakeholders in disaster management during the pre- and post-cyclone seasons.

"India has one of the best early warning systems and weather forecasting models," said the DG IMD. DG Mrutyunjay Mohapatra also highlighted the achievements of IMD in recent times in cyclone forecasting, along with continued co-operation from the National Disaster Management Authority, National Disaster Response Force, and Indian armed forces such as Army, Navy Air Force, Coast Guard, etc. Monsoon 2024: India Likely to Experience Normal Monsoon This Year, Says Skymet.

He informed that the IMD has developed an indigenous 'Decision Support System' with an increased accuracy of more than 50 per cent as compared to predictions in the last decade. Mohapatra also shared that a multimodal ensemble system is being deployed to continuously monitor weather changes and accordingly issue location specific advisories.

He also highlighted various mobile apps developed by IMD to issue warnings. He categorically mentioned that Application Programming Interface (API) are made available for other organisations to utilize. "We saw zero causalities during cyclone Biparjoy due to preparedness," said the DG IMD. Monsoon in India: Rains Likely to be Normal This Year, Monsoon Expect to Reach Kerala by June 4, Predicts IMD.

The DG IMD said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) developed a Web-based Dynamic Composite Risk Atlas (Web-DCRA) for location specific forecasting are made available to district disaster managers.

As IMD celebrates the 150th year of its establishment and service to the nation, Mohapatra expressed his confidence that IMD is ready to scale new heights and reach out to every household with weather information at any time and anywhere, "Har Har Mausam and Har Ghar Mausam" with state-of-the-art technology and collaboration of academia, R & D institutes, public-private partnerships and stakeholders.

Mohsen Shahedi, DIG (Ops & Training), NDRF, said that the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are ready and continuously revisited along with feedback. He appreciated IMD's efforts and expressed confidence that NDMA, NDRF, and IMD would work cooperatively.

RK Agarwal (PA &AO), NCRMP, also highlighted the success they have achieved in the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project with cooperation from IMD. Participants from various disaster management agencies, including representatives from the governments of all coastal states and union territories, senior officials from the Director General of Shipping, the Director General of Lighthouses and Lightships, the National Hydrographic Office, the Airport Authority of India, the Port Authority, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Fisheries, Rural Development, All India Radio, Doordarshan News and the Press Information Bureau were also present for the exercise.

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