India's early disaster warning is world class: Harsh Vardhan

KOLKATA: Union Minister for Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan today said that India has developed a "world class" disaster warning system in the last 10 years, claiming it to be "even better than some countries."

"When Tsunami came in the month of December 2004, you can say that we were literally taken by surprise. And the country virtually had no system to be able to (predict)," Dr Vardhan said during a visit to the Indian Association For the Cultivation of Science.

"Now within the last ten years, what we have in the country in 2015 is actually world-class, number one," Vardhan said, adding that India also helps other countries with early signals and warnings.

"Scientifically, technologically we are comparable to the best in the world or may be even better than some countries across the ocean. It is a fact and something you feel proud of," the minister said.

When asked about the Nepal quake which has claimed thousands of lives, he said earthquakes cannot not only be scientifically predicted in India but all over the world.