Timely call saved TN village
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, JANUARY 04, 2005 09:59:05 PM ]
AHMEDABAD: If the government is looking for lessons in disaster warning, it could well learn a thing or two from Tamil Nadu's Virampattinam village, which averted loss of lives with the help of its communication network.
"The story of Virampattinam, a small coastal village, is praiseworthy. The villagers here came to know about the tsunami an hour in advance," says MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of Green Revolution and now the chairman of the National Commission on Farmers. He was in Ahmedabad to attend the Indian Science Congress.
"A villager named Vijay Kumar,who is a member of the MS Swaminathan Foundation, was in Singapore when the tsunami struck South-East Asia. And, he called his home immediately. Virampattinam,which means the land of the brave, showed exemplary presence of mind," Swaminathan told TOI in the sidelines of the congress,where he advocated the 'right to information'.
"The village, which has a good communication system with a network loudspeakers, blared out the message, asking people to evacuate and stay away from the sea. Not only this, they used the time to download data on wave height from the village knowledge centre to gauge the seriousness the situation," he said.
"We should have predictive capacity and good communication system too. Virampattinam is a perfect example this," he adds.
source THE TIMES OF INDIA
AHMEDABAD: If the government is looking for lessons in disaster warning, it could well learn a thing or two from Tamil Nadu's Virampattinam village, which averted loss of lives with the help of its communication network.
"The story of Virampattinam, a small coastal village, is praiseworthy. The villagers here came to know about the tsunami an hour in advance," says MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of Green Revolution and now the chairman of the National Commission on Farmers. He was in Ahmedabad to attend the Indian Science Congress.
"A villager named Vijay Kumar,who is a member of the MS Swaminathan Foundation, was in Singapore when the tsunami struck South-East Asia. And, he called his home immediately. Virampattinam,which means the land of the brave, showed exemplary presence of mind," Swaminathan told TOI in the sidelines of the congress,where he advocated the 'right to information'.
"The village, which has a good communication system with a network loudspeakers, blared out the message, asking people to evacuate and stay away from the sea. Not only this, they used the time to download data on wave height from the village knowledge centre to gauge the seriousness the situation," he said.
"We should have predictive capacity and good communication system too. Virampattinam is a perfect example this," he adds.
source THE TIMES OF INDIA
Anand at 1:30:00 am |
| 0 Comments | Post a Comment |