The great Sumatra earthquake (Mw 9.3) of 26th December, 2004, was rated as the worlds second largest recorded earthquake. This earthquake generated a devastating tsunami, which caused unprecedented loss of life and damage to property in the Indian Ocean rim countries. The tsunami was considered as one of the deadliest natural hazards in the history, killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries. In India it claimed an estimated more than 10,000 lives.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences took up the responsibility of establishing the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS). The ITEWS was established in 2007 and is based at & operated by Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad. The ITEWS is an integrated effort of different organizations including the Department of Space (DOS), Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Survey of India (SOI) and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
The ITEWS comprises a real-time network of seismic stations, Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR), tide gauges and 24 X 7 operational tsunami warning centre to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes, to monitor tsunamis and to provide timely advisories to vulnerable community by means of latest communication methods with back-end support of a pre-run scenario database and Decision Support System (DSS).
The ITEWS has the responsibility to provide tsunami advisories to Indian Mainland and the Island regions. It is capable of issuing Tsunami bulletins in less than 10 minutes after any major earthquake in the Indian Ocean thus leaving us with a response/lead time of about 10 to 20 minutes for near source regions in the Andaman & Nicobar and a few hours in the case of mainland.
Acting as one of the Regional Tsunami Advisory service Providers (RTSPs) for the Indian Ocean Region, ITEWS also provides tsunami advisories to the Indian Ocean rim countries.
The ITEWS disseminates tsunami bulletins to various stakeholders through multiple dissemination modes simultaneously (Fax, Phone, Emails, GTS and SMS etc.). Users can also register on the website for receiving earthquake alerts and tsunami bulletins through emails and SMS.