Tsunami Siren

The Indian authority did issue a tsunami alert this time round in the wake of the March 28, 8.7 earthquake in the Indonesian island of Nias. And this was certainly a positive sign in the context of enormity of the last December 26 tsunami tragedy. Union Science Minister, Kapil Sibal's statement, "Overall, we were well prepared" is thus well-placed. However, the tsunami warning system in the earthquake-prone Indian Ocean region still has a long way to go. It has to be developed on sound scientific lines and updated from time to time, keeping aside narrow sectarian interests. International co-operation both in chalking out concrete plans and their actual speedy and accurate implementations, are the needs of the hour. At the grassroot level, the coastal inhabitants need to be made vigilant about the pros and cons of tsunami safety measures to keep damages down to a bare minimum if at all there is another tsunami. Man still cannot avert nature's wrath but he certainly can act rationally enough to weather the onslaught.