Context: Recently, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO (also known as UNESCO-IOC) has approved the recognition of two communities of Odisha viz., Venkatraipur and Noliasahi as Tsunami Ready Communities.
About Tsunami Ready programme

• It is a community performance-based programme initiated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO to promote tsunami preparedness through the active collaboration of public, community leaders, and national and local emergency management agencies.
• The initiative is modelled after the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service’s successful Tsunami Ready program.

Objectives of the programme

• To improve the coastal community’s preparedness for tsunami emergencies.
• To minimize the loss of life and property.
• To ensure a structural and systematic approach in building community preparedness through fulfilling the best-practice indicators set by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (ICG/IOTWMS) of UNESCO-IOC.
• Fulfilment of the guidelines ensures communities have a strong end-to-end tsunami early warning and mitigation system with a particular focus on community awareness and preparedness to respond.

About the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)

• IOC-UNESCO was established in 1960 as a body with functional autonomy within UNESCO and is the only competent organization for marine science within the UN system.
• The purpose of the Commission is to promote international cooperation and to coordinate programmes in research, services and capacity-building, in order to learn more about the nature and resources of the ocean and coastal areas and to apply that knowledge for the improvement of management, sustainable development, the protection of the marine environment, and the decision-making processes of its Member States.
• The IOC is recognized through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the competent international organization in the fields of Marine Scientific Research and Transfer of Marine Technology.

About Tsunami Warning in India

• The Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), INCOIS is the nodal agency to provide tsunami advisories to India.
• INCOIS is the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
• INCOIS is also providing tsunami advisories to the Indian Ocean Region (25 countries) as a Tsunami Service Provider under the responsibility assigned by IOC-UNESCO.
• To create awareness and preparedness about tsunamis, INCOIS regularly organizes Tsunami Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) workshops, training sessions and seminars for state and district level Disaster Management Officials (DMOs) of the coastal states.
• ITEWC also conducts tsunami mock exercises (called IOWave) twice a year in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the national and state-level disaster management agencies.
• To implement and monitor the implementation of Tsunami Ready and IOWave Exercises in India, the Ministry of Earth Sciences established a National Board under the chairmanship of Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Centre (INCOIS).

The members of the board are drawn from

• Earth Sciences Ministry
• National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)
• Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
• Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA)
• Andaman & Nicobar Islands Directorate of Disaster Management (DDM)

INCOIS

• Based on the National Board recommendations, UNESCO-IOC has approved the recognition of two communities viz., Venkatraipur and Noliasahi as Tsunami Ready Communities. The two communities are villages in Odisha.
• With this recognition, India is the first country to implement Tsunami Ready in the Indian Ocean Region and Odisha is the first state.

About Tsunamis

• These are a series of waves usually generated by movement of the sea floor. These movements are caused by different types of geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions.
• The word tsunami is a Japanese word, represented by two characters: tsu, meaning, "harbor", and nami meaning, "wave".
• The tsunami waves behave very differently in deep water than in shallow water as their speed is related to the water depth.
• They frequently occur in the Pacific, where dense oceanic plates slide under the lighter continental plates. When these plates fracture they provide a vertical movement of the seafloor that allows a quick and efficient transfer of energy from the solid earth to the ocean.