Three Dehradun-based institutions have submitted a joint proposal to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) regarding the scientific study needed to ascertain whether the observation of animals can be helpful in predicting disasters. Talking to The Pioneer, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) director Dr VB Mathur said that the prime minister’s office had asked the NDMA for details on possibility of using animals to predict disasters. Apart from the WII, the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) are also involved in the proposal submitted to the NDMA about a week ago, said Mathur.
According to the WII director various birds and animals have been known to behave differently prior to disasters like earthquakes. “China, Japan and South Korea are ahead in research on such aspects of animal behavior though this is still in the research and development phase. We cannot simply cite some incident of a monkey behaving erratically before a disaster but need scientific observation and conclusions. We have proposed that animal behavior be filmed on video to study the possibility of disaster prediction. Since the behavior of zoo animals will be affected by factors not encountered by the wild animals, we will have to study both the zoo and wild animals. While the WII will focus on the animals, the IIRS will focus on the technological aspects with WIHG looking into the geological aspects. We recently submitted a proposal for this to the NDMA,” said Mathur.
