PUNE: It’s 1875. Arya Samaj was born, Asia’s first stock exchange came up in Bombay, an agrarian crisis brewed and farmers in the Bombay presidency rioted and Henry Blanford established India Meteorological Department (IMD).
For 150 years, IMD’s scientific evolution has been shaped by weather, colonial preferences and wartime necessities. Its historic buildings, including the heritage structure popularly known as Shimla Office in Pune inaugurated in 1928, speak of a storied journey.
British mathematician and meteorologist Sir Gilbert Walker was its director-general when he studied India’s peculiar weather patterns between 1904 and 1924 and published his findings on Southern Oscillation, the phenomenon that influences weather patterns worldwide. It laid the groundwork for understanding El Niño.
Starting small, growing big
Blanford faced a unique challenge – standardizing meteorological measurements across a vast, climatically diverse nation. The department began with 198 rainfall stations and 87 observatories but the devastating famine of 1877 made weather prediction in an agrarian economy important.
In the 1900s, simple rain gauges and theodolites tracked wind-monitoring balloons. IMD progressed to GPS-based systems and now has 56 radiosonde stations. It launches hydrogen-filled balloons daily to measure atmospheric parameters and has weather stations in Antarctica.
Moving addresses
IMD’s geographical odyssey began in Calcutta (now Kolkata) but the heat prompted a shift to the cool climes of Shimla. The hill station posed logistical challenges and IMD came to Pune in 1928, OP Sreejith, head of climate monitoring and prediction group at IMD Pune, said.
During World War II, its headquarters moved to Delhi, driven by aviation forecasting for military operations and Pune became crucial for meteorological research. SK Banerji became its first Indian director general in 1944. “Since then, IMD has gone from predicting weather conditions to impact-based forecasts of extreme events,” Sreejith added.
Forecasting for the fields
India’s first agricultural meteorology division was set up in Pune in 1932, Kripan Ghosh, head of IMD’s agrimet division, said. Under LA Ramdas, the division began experiments at College of Agriculture in Pune. India’s first farmers’ weather bulletin came in 1945.
From state-level advisories in 1977 to today’s hyperlocal forecasts, IMD’s agricultural services have become precise, Ghosh said. The 127 agro-climatic zones set up during the 1980s revolutionized the approach, and these services extend to finer spatial scales for targeted forecasting.
IMD’s Meghdoot app and WhatsApp provide block-level weather forecasts and district-level agro-meteorological advisories to farmers. Ghosh said, “During cyclones, crucial advisories reach farmers through the Kisan portal and state agricultural platforms.”
Into the deep freeze
IMD scientists stationed in Antarctica since 1981 on India’s two permanent stations— Maitri and Bharati— track global weather patterns and monitor the ozone hole first detected over the continent.
Scientists undergo rigorous preparation at DRDO’s Himalayan facilities for stringent health and fitness tests. “These evaluations are critical because once deployed, medical facilities are extremely limited,” Sreejith said.
On the ice continent, they grapple with continuous darkness or perpetual daylight, fierce blizzards and extreme isolation. Ships carrying supplies for up to two years can access the stations only during summer so scientists typically commit to 18-month deployments. Sometimes, tragedy strikes. An IMD scientist from Delhi succumbed to cardiac arrest during his mission.
