Rains, tornados, high velocity winds, tidal waves and tsunami, not to mention the pirate menace. The south Indian State of Karnataka, with its 320-km-long coastline has perhaps lost count of the number of missing’ fishermen, who remain incommunicado due to collapse of their communication device.
However, the new project envisaged by the State Disaster Management department will no longer leave the fishermen at sea.
Move over wireless and cellphones, the state government has chalked out a proposal to set up satellite phone network in the three coastal districts Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada, build floating jetties and rehab shelters along the coastline to mitigate the risk during emergencies.
The State government is busy preparing a project proposal under the National Coastal Risk Management, which provides an assistance of Rs 26 crore over a four-year period.
Says Dr K. Amaranarayana, Secretary, Revenue (Disaster Management) department, Within a month, we hope to submit the proposal to home ministry as we have realized that often fishermen in deep sea complain about weak signal and poor connectivity of mobile phones and wireless equipment. With Satellite phones we can overcome these limitations.
“The Sat-phones provide clear voice, mobility and reliability as they are independent of any local telephony infrastructure and face no service disruptions because of power failures. We can be sure that the distress calls are received at our end and help rushed on time.
Sat-phones can be effectively used during emergencies to disseminate information on high tides, cyclone, rainfall and even tsunami by linking it to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) warning system. This can speed up evacuation of people along the coastline and give out advisories to fishermen in the sea, explains Dr Amaranarayana.