Bhubaneswar: Seventy-four more coastal villages in Odisha were Monday declared “tsunami ready” under a UNESCO-IOC programme, taking the total number of such villages in the state to 100, officials said.
The recognition was announced at a meeting of the National Tsunami Ready Board (NTRB) and the Odisha government here following field verification of coastal villages in Baleshwar, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts.
The meeting was chaired by Balakrishnan Nair, director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), and Rajesh Prabhakar Patil, managing director of the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA).
The state government has identified 381 coastal villages and habitations as tsunami-prone and aims to prepare them under the programme in a phased manner, officials said.
The NTRB conducted field verification September 26 and 27, assessing tsunami awareness, preparedness and response mechanisms and interacting with local communities.
The NTRB members later met Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari and apprised him of their observations and findings.
Pujari appreciated the board’s efforts and the preparedness demonstrated by local communities and provided guidance on further strengthening tsunami resilience in the state, officials said.
The UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Tsunami Ready Recognition Programme is a community performance-based initiative aimed at strengthening tsunami preparedness through collaboration among government agencies, scientific institutions, community leaders and emergency management authorities, they said.
The programme seeks to develop resilient communities capable of protecting lives, livelihoods and property through awareness, preparedness and timely response. It is being implemented in 22 countries in the Indian Ocean Region, including India, they added.
Odisha’s journey under the programme began in 2019 with the recognition of Venkatraipur (Boxipalli) in Ganjam district and Noliasahi in Jagatsinghpur district as Tsunami Ready villages. In 2024, 24 more villages were recognised under the programme.
With this, India became the first country in the Indian Ocean Region to implement the Tsunami Ready Programme, while Odisha became the first state to prepare communities under it, officials said.