Amid several analyses of Kerala’s devastating floods earlier this month pointing to lack of preparedness escalating the impact of the extreme weather event, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) Madhavan Rajeevan said a ‘red alert’ issued by the IMD for several districts of Kerala two days ahead of the August downpours was not followed up adequately.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr Rajeevan said: “An ‘orange’ means ‘be on alert’ and a ‘red’ means take action. So for instance, if a dam is full and you’ve been warned of heavy rains, then that means you should have been careful.”
While Kerala records among the highest amounts of rainfall in the country, Mr. Rajeevan said the State did not have a flood warning system in place. He added that while there were several sophisticated tools to anticipate extreme weather events, India still lacked a mechanism to effectively deploy them.
Mr. Rajeevan said India’s dams are not being managed scientifically based on inputs and crucial decisions were still left to individuals.
Linking the extreme weather event to global warming, he said a disaster of the magnitude witnessed in Kerala was possible in any part of the country.