The India Meteorological Department (IMD) sent out its first earthquake advisory between 7.30 and 8 am to the Centre and Southern coastal states today, saying an earthquake had occurred in Sumatra and there might be ‘‘some devastation’’ in coastal India. The Earthquake Risk Evaluation Centre of the IMD started collecting data from its centres and observation towers immediately after the earthquake at 6.29 am IST, but took an hour to analyse the data before sending out the advisory. ‘‘We didn’t want to create panic unnecessarily. So we had to analyse the data carefully,’’ said an IMD official. And a Tsunami, unheard of in India, was the last thing on anyone’s mind at that point in time. According to IMD data, the Tsunami tidal waves travelled around 500 km per hour over 2,000 km and reached India’s eastern coast three hours after the Sumatra earthquake. Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said, ‘‘There is no technology in the world that can give prior warning for a tidal wave or a Tsunami.’’ The ministry has issued an advisory to all coastal areas that more Tsunamis could be triggered off. According to the IMD, there has been no precedence. There was an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on June 26, 1941 but there are no records of a Tsunami hitting India even at that time, according to data available with the IMD. ‘‘In India, this is the first time that we experienced a Tsunami. There is a network that exists in the Pacific region, including the US Geological Survey and the Japan Let Department. But they have never come to India because the Tsunami is unheard of here,’’ said B. Lak, Additional Director-General of the Met Department. The IMD said the worst was over and people should now be careful of the aftershocks that will continue for the next two-three days but added that it won’t cause the same extent of devastation. Earthquake experts also agreed that Tsunamis had till now been unheard of in India. National siesmic advisor and professor emeritus at IIT Rourkee, Prof A.S. Arya said, ‘‘A Tsunami can’t be predicted. In India, this is the first case of a Tsunami. In the last 100 years, there were many earthquakes near the Andamans but no record of such sea waves has been predicted,’’ he said, and added: ‘‘There is no preparedness or any research on this in the country. Japan and Phillipines are affected by Tsunamis, so they have a precautionary warning method through which timely warning is given.’’ Dinamani staffer loses wife, daughter
