|
While we were sleeping
Barun Mitra, December 31, 2004
[This article was published in The Indian
Express, New Delhi, December 31, 2004. Read full article
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=61806]
The tsunami tragedy has revealed one
thing, says Barun Mitra : information is the
key in a crisis.
Even as we struggle to come to terms with the trail
of death and destruction left by the sea surges that
hit our unwary shores just a day after Christmas, we
need to realise that all crises opens up new opportunities.
The deaths of so many of our fellow countrymen need
not be in vain if we act on what we learn.The tsunami
that hit the Indian coastline, along with seven other
countries in the region, has been one of biggest natural
calamity in recent decades. However, the human cost
could have been significantly reduced.Arguably, the
single most important factor that shaded this colossal
human tragedy was lack of information. Lack of appropriate
information and grossly inadequate communication networks
exposed our extremely vulnerable flanks to the ravaging
of both earth and sea.Information is power when information
is credible, timely, locally relevant, and widely accessible
to the population. That information can literally be
a matter of life and death is revealed by the report
of an alert Indian working in Singapore who telephoned
his native village in Pondicherry and warned about a
possible tidal surge in the early hours of December26th.
Such a simple act saved many lives. So also, a few years
ago when a super cyclone hit the eastern state of Orissa,
an alert port official in Paradweep kept tracking the
storm on the Internet and helped guide a few ships to
safety.The first TV pictures of the unfolding tragedy
came via Doordarshan only around 10.40 am. There have
been very few reports of MMS, home video or web camera
capturing the images of the devastation. Bare arsenal,
indeed, for a nation that seeks to leapfrog into the
information age.
There was a major earthquake off
Antarctica about a week ago. Some scientists think that it
had contributed to the build of seismic stress in the
Sumatra region. Were our meteorologists aware of the
possible threat? It is now clear that the Met office had
barely noted the threat posed by the quake off Sumatra, and
D-day being a Sunday, that information was not effectively
utilised by any of the coastal authorities either.
At every stage, there was a shrinking
window of opportunity to warn people. But nothing happened.
A country that hopes to run the call centres of the world
could not call its own people. In a country that aspires to
be a world power, it took 12 hours for news of the disaster
that overcame the Air Force base in Car Nicobar island to
trickle through. Is this is the level of our defence
preparedness, when New Delhi is supposedly a mere 20 minutes
away from a Pakistani missile, and Karachi is in the same
situation in the opposite direction?
The tsunami hit Sri Lanka just a little
before 8 am; around 8 am, the tide had reached Cuddalore in
Tamil Nadu. In another 40 minutes, the waves lashed Chennai,
going up the coast to Vishakapatnam by 9 am. Just prior to
the deluge, the sea retreated quite a long way back as if to
draw its breath before the final punch. But there was no one
to take note or warn people of this, an act that would have
given people at least ten minutes to flee the beaches. And
those who did see did not understand this phenomenon,
including the coast guard, the navy and the port
authorities.
|
