By IANS
New Delhi : All coastal states in India were put on high alert and battalions of the National Disaster Response Force were galvanised Wednesday in the wake of a tsunami warning following a 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia.
Home ministry officials sounded the alert for the Andaman and Nicobar islands, which lie around 1,200 km off its east coast, and said local authorities in all coastal areas on the mainland were asked to be vigilant.
Meanwhile, Indonesia lifted the tsunami warning soon after issuing it in the wake of the earthquake hit the Bengkulu province in Sumatra Island.
K.C. Singh, a senior member of the National Disaster Management Authority, told IANS here that three battalions of the National Disaster Response Force were on high alert and activated at Arakonam in Tamil Nadu, Mundli near Bhubaneswar in Orissa and Kolkata.
“We have taken precautions in all coastal areas of India. There could be some impact on Andaman and Nicobar islands but it is too early to say,” Singh said.
The Orissa government, too, alerted officials of the six coastal districts.
“We have alerted district collectors of Balasore, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Gajapati and Bhadrak to remain alert as the quake may trigger tsunami in Bay of Bengal,” said Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority deputy general manager Abhaya Naik.
“We have asked the district collectors to move people living near the coast to safer places and asked them to move the people living near the coast to at least two kilometre distances,” he said.
The Tamil Nadu government also issued a warning to all coastal districts about the possibility of a tsunami hitting the Indian shores.
Police and civic officials began evacuating residents living next to the sea all over Tamil Nadu.
Chennai, which has the second longest beach in the world, witnessed frenzied activity as residents gripped with fear were trying to move out while curious onlookers descended on the sea front.
Officials, however, indicated that the possibility of a tsunami hitting Tamil Nadu was remote because more than two and a half hours had elapsed since the earthquake hit Indonesia at 4.40 p.m. IST.
Both Sri Lanka and India were battered by the 2004 tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean rim.
“The warning is red, it is one level below the highest,” said an NDMA official, referring to the Andaman islands.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) Wednesday went on high alert following the trembler in Indonesia, even though there was no immediate threat to civilian military and civilian assets in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
A special operations room has been established in the Air Headquarters here and will be manned 24×7 under the command of the assistant chief of air staff (Operations) Air Chief Marshal K.J. Mathews, an IAF spokesman said.
“We are constantly monitoring the situation and all our transport and helicopter bases have been alerted to respond to any eventuality that might arise,” the spokesman, Wing Commander Mahesh Upasni, told IANS.
“We are in constant touch with the Andaman and Nicobar Command (based at Port Blair) and with our air base at Car Nicobar. At the moment, there is no danger to the island territories,” Upasni added.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and particularly the Car Nicobar IAF base were severely devastated in the 2004 Indian Ocean killer tsunami.