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India asks: 'Why weren't we warned?'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-01 11:13
For two and a half hours the tsunami sped toward the Indian coast, yet nobody
was warned.
The waves struck Indonesia, Thailand and then submerged an air force base on
the Indian island of Car Nicobar, 800 miles from the mainland.
Refugees have
breakfast in the tent as a sign says 'All the sympathy for Aceh' at a
refugee camp Saturday, Jan 1, 2005 at the airport in Banda Aceh, the
capital of Aceh province, as survivors survey the devastation of the
earthquake-triggered Tsunami that killed at least 80,000 people in the
province alone in northwest Indonesia and raised the death toll across
Asia to more than 125,000. [AP] | Finally, minutes
before the deadly waters struck, the sea began to rapidly recede from India's
western shore. In some places, children scurried onto the beach to pick up
shells.
Faxes were sent between government departments, but still no warning was
given to the public. Finally the tsunami struck, with devastating effect.
"At every stage, there was a shrinking window of opportunity to warn people.
But nothing happened," said Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, a New Delhi-based
think-tank.
"A country that hopes to run the call centers of the world could not call its
own people."
India's grief over Sunday's tsunami has not yet given way to anger, with most
people too stunned by the awesome power of nature to blame their government. But
the media are beginning to ask the question -- was the bureaucracy fatally
complacent?
The Indian Express Newspaper says the top brass of the Indian Air Force knew
their Nicobar Air base had been submerged a full hour before the waves struck
the mainland coast.
The sun sets for
the last time this year behind a building destroyed by Sunday's tsunami in
Cuddalore, about 180 km south of Madras December 31, 2004.
[Reuters] | The Indian Meteorological Department knew of the earthquake within minutes.
Its first fax went out two and half hours later, and was sent to the home of the
previous government's science and technology minister, rather than his
successor, the paper said.
The IMD only informed the home ministry itself after the tsunami had struck,
a ministry official told Reuters.
"The debate is on and it will go on, whether we could have reacted faster,"
the home ministry's secretary in charge of disaster management, A.K. Rastogi,
told Reuters.
"My dear, it was a Sunday. Time was taken by the officer to get ready and get
into the car -- but there was no delay."
"You have to appreciate that there has been no system like this, and now
everyone is getting wiser. In future, I hope, the Indian Meteorological
Department will be better."
It is certainly easy to be wise after the event, and the IMD says it had
never in its "wildest imagination" expected a tsunami on this scale to strike
India.
Seismologist Arun Bapat says he has been warning of the risk of a tsunami for
decades, yet no one was listening.
"There have been four tsunamis in India in the last 100 years, and it is
well-known that an earthquake of such a large magnitude generates a tsunami.
There was no system in place."
Yet the Meteorological Department is all too convenient a scapegoat, some
commentators have argued.
The Indian Express newspaper blamed the government's "tunnel vision," its
policy of self-reliance, and its reluctance to take part in international
scientific collaboration.
India was not among the 26 countries which were alerted within minutes of the
earthquake, using a system of seismic sensors and tidal gauges linked to ocean
buoys. The truth, perhaps, is that India has long been more wary of its Indian
Ocean neighbors than worried about tsunamis.
The final irony is that a system is in place to warn fisherman of an
impending cyclone within minutes, with 500 receivers along the coast ready to
broadcast in native languages.
Four days late, the government sprung into action. Saying it had picked up a
warning "from a number of experts outside country" that another earthquake might
be on its way, the home ministry issued a tsunami warning.
There was widespread panic along the coast and the aid effort was interrupted
for hours as coastal areas were evacuated.
It turned out to be a false alarm.
Science Minister Kapil Sibal called it "hogwash" and relief workers called it
a "cruel joke."
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