Balasore to get Country’s first Thunderstorm Research Lab,D.G,IMD
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar: Balasore will get the country’s first thunderstorm research testing Laboratory, the Director General of India Mr.Mrutynjaya Mahapatra has said. The major objective of setting up the thunderstorm test-Lab is to minimalise human fatalities and loss of property due to lightning strikes, he added.
Mohapatra told to a particlular TV channel that first-of-its-kind monsoon test-lab is also being planned near Bhopal. Both the projects are in the planning stage and detailed project reports are being made, he said.
Mohapatra said the thunderstorm test-lab will be established in collaboration between the Ministry of Earth Sciences, IMD, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). “The IMD, ISRO and DRDO already have their units in Balasore. Observatories will be set up to cater to nearby areas and studies on thunderstorms will be conducted on the test-lab,” he said.
Balasore’s Chandipur has the Integrated Test Range for launching missiles. “The Lab will have several observational networks, a full-fledged observatory, radar, auto-station, microwave radiometer and a wind profiler,” Mohapatra said. “A meteorological research test-led is a kin to what a missile test-range is for testing missiles,”,often referred to as the “Cyclone Man of India” for his accurate prediction of cyclones in the Indian subcontinent, pointed out that many lives are lost in Odisha,West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand due to lightning strikes every year between April and June. More than 350 people are killed on an average in lightning strikes in Odisha every year, sources reveal Odisha has lost 3,218 lives due to lightning strikes in nine years till 2019-20. Over 400 people were killed in lightning strikes in 2016-17, while 470 lives were lost in 2017-18 and 334 in 2018 -19,
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