India Meteorological Department Celebrates 150 Years of Service to Nation

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), principal government agency of the Government of India for all weather and climate services is celebrating its 150 years of service to the nation as it commemorated its 150th foundation day on Monday.

IMD has been dedicated providing its services for the last 150 years to the nation. IMD was established in 1875 to co-ordinate, combine and extend the work of various provisional authorities by making arrangements with administrative and medical officers of various districts for noting temperature, pressure and rainfall.

In October 1864, a highly destructive cyclone originated in the Bay of Bengal which struck Kolkata and took lives of more than 80,000 people. Within a few weeks later, another cyclone hit Machilipattanam and as a result more than forty thousand people were killed.

After such devastating calamities, a Sanitary Commission was appointed whose report was accepted by the Government of India, which decided to establish a Meteorological Department in India. Mr. H.F. Blandford was appointed as the Imperial Meteorological reporter to the Government of India in 1875. With the establishment of IMD, all meteorological works in India were brought under its ambit.

The main programme of the IMD 150 years Foundation Day celebration was held in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi where Hon’ble Vice President of India, Sri Jagdeep Dhankhar was the Chief Guest. Dr. M. Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology welcomed all the invitees and gave brief history of IMD.  Theme song of IMD was presented.

Sri Kiren Rijiju, Hon’ble minister of Earth Sciences in his speech told about various weather and climate services and new initiatives by IMD. After that IMD Souvenir was released and new initiatives like Decision Support System (DSS), Panchayat Mausam Seva (PMS), IMD’s mobile app, National Framework of Climate Services (NFCS) were launched.

In the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Guwahati the programme started with an inaugural speech by Dr. Sanjay O’Neill Shaw, Scientist-F. Dr. Shaw congratulated all the officials of IMD Guwahati on the 150th foundation day of IMD. He thanked them for their efforts for completing IMD its successful 150 years of glorious journey. Sri Suprakash Chakraborty, Scientific Officer and Sri Sailen Saikia, Scientific Officer highlighted various services rendered by IMD. An exhibition was organised in Regional Meteorological Centre, Guwahati depicting meteorological instruments and IMD services for public viewing and popular lecture for students. Sri Sunit Das, Scientist-F offered vote of thanks.

RMC Guwahati was established on 1st April 1997. Presently, Meteorological Centres are in all the NE states to cater meteorological services for each state separately. IMD is providing services to various sectors like aviation, agriculture, shipping, hydrology, transport, power & energy, health, monsoon, sports, tourism, cyclone, space, fog, flood, mountaineering, fisheries, environment, pilgrimage, defence, urban development and many more. There are 22 departmental stations including meteorological centres at the state capitals of NE states and about 350 number of Automatic Weather Stations and 8 upper air observatories working in the region. There are three dopplers weather radars installed in the region. There are plans to augment meteorological instrumentation in the region by installing more Automatic Weather Stations and other observational infrastructures. Also 11 number of Doppler Radars will be installed in various places across NE region.

From 15th January 2024 to 15th January 2025, a number of activities throughout the year have been planned by IMD. RMC Guwahati is organising awareness programmes on weather, climate, environment, green energy etc. Students will also be invited to visit Regional Meteorological Centre, Guwahati to see the functioning of meteorological instruments and weather forecasting techniques.

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