India seeks satellite data on floods from China,others

New Delhi, July 26 (IANS) With the flood situation in the northeast and Bihar continuing to remain grim, India has reached out to other countries, including China, for help with satellite data on the flood-hit areas.

Information on India's request came from the new Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong, who tweeted: "Following ISRO's request for international disaster relief support, China has provided India with satellite data on India's flood-hit regions to assist its flood relief efforts. Hope all gets well soon."

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs, explaining the situation, said that whenever there is a disaster the National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC), which represents ISRO as a member of the International Charter 'Space and Major Disasters', can approach the Charter for satellite data relating to disaster-hit areas.

The NRSC and member space agencies of other 32 countries which are a part of the Charter can activate it for information pertaining to disaster-hit areas available with all the 33 member space agencies. "This is the standard practice," the MEA spokesperson said.

The NRSC approached the Charter on July 17 after heavy floods hit several parts of the country.

"So far the NRSC has received data from eight countries, including USGS (United States Geological Survey), CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), ESA (European Space Agency), ROSCOSMOS (Russian space agency), Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA) and three others. ISRO has also provided information to other Space Agencies in response to similar requests," the MEA said.