SHILLONG, July 27 ? Satellite imageries of rain-clouds massing over Sikkim, Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet days before torrential rains inundated the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, resulting in one of the worst floods in recent history, had clearly indicated the impending catastrophe! The imageries were available with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), which is the competent authority to issue warnings on floods, cyclones, droughts, etc, in addition to its normal duties of issuing weather bulletins and forecasts.
This came to light at the third interface meeting on agro-meteorlogical advisory service organized by the ICAR Research Complex for NE Hill Region at Barapani near here recently. Dr PP Nageswara Rao, deputy director, North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) said: ?We observed the massing of rain-clouds over Sikkim, Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet. This was a clear indication that heavy rains would swell the Brahmaputra and its tributaries which would in turn spill over and cause floods in the Assam plains.? He was presenting a paper on ?Satellite based weather monitoring for issuing advisory services to facilitate easy farm operations.?
Surprisingly, however, the IMD failed to issue any flood warning to Assam and other NE states. While it is true that the devastating floods that swept through Assam could not have been prevented, the damages could definitely have been minimized had a timely warning been issued. No warning was issued by the IMD predicting the heavy rainfall, as indicated by the satellite imageries, which resulted in spilling over of the mighty Brahmaputra and its turbulent tributaries.
The formation of the deadly rain clouds along the northern boundaries of the Assam plains was observed by the scientists at NESAC at Barapani near here, who were scanning the satellite imageries of the weather pattern in the North-East. A NESAC scientist claimed that indications of the impending flood were available through the satellite imageries, which were also available to the Indian Meteorological Department