Cyclone warning centres in the country
There are seven Warning Centers covering the east & west coasts of our country. “IMD has demonstrated its capability to provide early warning for Cyclones with high precision and has earned accolades globally and nationally”--Dr. Harsh Vardhan
In order to cater to the needs of Cyclone Warning Services and Marine weather services, there are seven Warning Centers covering the east & west coasts of our country. Among these, three are Area Cyclone Warning Centres (ACWCs) located at Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata and remaining four are Cyclone Warning Centres (CWCs) located at Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar. Area of responsibility of ACWCs and CWCs is shown in the Tablebelow.
Centre | Coastal area* | Maritime State/UT |
ACWC Kolkata | State: West Bengal UT: Andaman & Nicobar Islands | State: West Bengal UT: Andaman & Nicobar Islands |
ACWC Chennai | State: Tamil Nadu UT: Puducherry | State: Tamil Nadu UT: Puducherry |
ACWC Mumbai | State: Maharashtra & Goa | State: Maharashtra & Goa |
CWC Thiruvananthapuram | State: Kerala & Karnataka UT: Lakshadweep | State: Kerala & Karnataka UT: Lakshadweep |
CWC Ahmedabad | State: Gujarat UT: Dadra-Nagar Haveli- Dainan-Diu | State: Gujarat UT: Dadra-Nagar Haveli- Daman-Diu |
CWC Visakhapatnam | State: Andhra Pradesh | State: Andhra Pradesh |
CWC Bhubaneshwar | State: Odisha | State: Odisha |
*Coastal strip of responsibility extends up to 75 km from the coastline.
Forecast and warning for the high sea areas of Arabian Sea and that for Bay of Bengal are the responsibilities of ACWC Mumbai and ACWC Kolkata respectively.
There is no plan for establishing more number of CWCs as the requirements of the entire coastal belt of the country is covered by the existing centres as mentioned above.
India Meteorological Department has demonstrated its capability to provide early warning for Cyclones with high precision and has earned accolades globally and nationally for very effective, state of art early warning system for monitoring and prediction of cyclones. The cyclone forecast accuracy has significantly improved in recent years as has been demonstrated during cyclones Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014), Vardah (2016), Titli (2018), Fani&Bulbul(2019) and Amphan&Nisarga (2020). Due to this,in recent years,the loss of life has been drastically reduced, being limited to double digit figures only.
Further improvements in the observational network and numerical modeling capability are also expected to increase the accuracy of weather forecasts.
Further, the Government of India has initiated the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) with a view to address cyclone risks in the country. The overall objective of the Project is to undertake suitable structural and non-structural measures to mitigate the effects of cyclones in the coastal states and Union Territories of India. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will be implementing this Project in coordination with participating State Governments and the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). The Project has identified 13 cyclone prone States and Union Territories (UTs), with varying levels of vulnerability for implementation purpose.
The main objective of the NCRMP is to reduce vulnerability of coastal communities to cyclone and other hydro meteorological hazards through
–improved early warning dissemination systems.
–enhanced capacity of local communities to respond to disasters.
–improved access to emergency shelter, evacuation, and protection against wind storms, flooding and storm surge in high areas.
–strengthening DRM capacity at central, state and local levels in order
enable mainstreaming of risk mitigation measures into the overall development agenda.
This information was given by Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.