More pilgrim spots seek weather reports and better met department coverage

NEW DELHI: Shilpa Tiwari keeps reloading the Indian Meteorological Department website as she checks the weather conditions on the Amarnath Yatra route. The 31-year-old has been conveying information on the weather to her mother who is set to take the 35 km trek from Chandanwari to the holy shrine.

"I am scared after the disaster in Uttarakhand and feel a constant need to know the weather condition," said Tiwari, based in Delhi.

After the massive flashfloods, the met department has weather forecast for the Char Dhams -Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. It has been doing it for the Amarnath shrine since 1996, when 250 pilgrims lost their lives in bad weather.

"The Shri Vaishno Devi Mata shrine board has approached us and we are preparing the feasibility report and a structured system of forecast for the 12 km stretch," said OP Singh, Deputy Director-General of Meteorology, Regional MeteorologIcal Centre, New Delhi. He added that they may cover the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra too. For the Amarnath Yatra, the department has station-wise weather forecast for rain, wind speed and humidity for the present and next day. It uploads information on its website, sends text messages to shrine board members and has ticker pointers on the route too.

"We have the know-how and technology and in collaboration with the state government, will be giving these services free of cost," said Mr Singh who added that since the setting of the 6 automatic weather station on both the Baltal and Pahalgam route there have been no casualty due to wrong weather forecast. A similar service has been there for 50 years for the Gangasagar mela, held 100 km south of Kolkata on January 14.
Seeing the largest religious congregation the Mahakumbh is also an important event for which the meteorological department has been getting request form state governments to provide updated information on rainfall, wind, humidity, temperature etc. "For the next Kumbh Mela to be held in Nashik, in 2015, we will start upgrading current facilities," said IMD deputy DG, Mumbai, NY Apte.

Similarly the met department is exploring to cover the Sree Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala, located on the Western Ghats in Kerala. The official also informed that important tourist destination were being considered to help tourist flow. "We are exploring to provide quick time weather data on the 25 km of highest motorable road from Gangtok to Nathu La pass," said an official from Gangtok. A meteorological department official from Nagpur said that request from tourism department officials of Maharashtra and Madhya Padesh has been received where they want certain destination of religious and tourism importance to be covered.