Extreme Precipitation and Kedarnath Disaster : A Case Study
Anand Kumar Sharma
Indian Meteorological Department
3 February, noon
Abstract:
The India meteorological Department is a responsibility center of Ministry of Earth Sciences government of India. It's main mandate is to provide accurate and timely weather forecast and warnings for various sectors in a range of scales with sufficient lead time to varied users, planners and administrators so that harmful impacts of bad weather can be reduced and benefits of favorable weather can be enhanced. Each state in India has a Meteorological Centre to cater to various weather and climate related needs of the people of the state. The case of June 2013 extreme precipitation event in the Northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, resulting in the Kedarnath disaster will be discussed in this talk to highlight the issue related to good governance. Gaps and lessons learnt during handling the Kedarnath disaster will be shared so that people can learn and utilize the information for better governance elsewhere. The proactive approach , innovative advisories and impact based forecast issued by Meteorological Center, IMD , Dehradun during Kedarnath disaster can be used as best practices to deal with similar situations around the world especially in the complex terrain of mountainous regions and will contribute to good governance.