Who issues flood and weather warnings in India?

A river is rising in a hill district, and the sarpanch's phone rings. Whose warning is it? A message may carry the name of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Central Water Commission (CWC), the state authority or the district office. People often ask who issues a flood warning in India, and the honest answer is that no single body does everything. Some agencies observe and forecast, one coordinates national policy, and others turn a forecast into an order to move. This article sets out who does what, as the law and the national plan describe it, so that engineers, officials and communities know where a warning comes from and where it can break down.

The legal frame: the Disaster Management Act, 2005

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 builds a three-tier structure of authorities, one at each level of government [1].

At district level the elected head of the local authority is co-chairperson, and the Superintendent of Police and the Chief Medical Officer are members [1].

Note what is not in this table: a forecasting agency. The Act sets up bodies that plan, coordinate and act. The scientific agencies that observe the weather and the rivers are ministries and departments of the Government of India, and the national plan names them separately.

What does NDMA actually do?

NDMA is a policy and guidance body. Under section 6 of the Act, it is responsible for "laying down the policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management for ensuring timely and effective response to disaster". It may approve the National Plan, and lay down guidelines that State Authorities follow when they draw up State Plans [2]. It does not run weather radars or river gauges.

The National Disaster Management Plan, revised in November 2019, is where the working arrangements are written down [3]. It is explicit that "no single agency or department can handle a disaster situation of any scale alone" and sets out a framework in which designated agencies monitor hazards, a central coordination hub passes information on, and state and district bodies act on the ground [3]. The national alert platform described below is NDMA's, and C-DOT built it.

Which agency forecasts which hazard?

The national plan lists the central agencies designated to monitor each natural hazard and set up early warning for it (Table 8-1 of the plan) [3]. The selection relevant to hill states is:

The plan adds that these agencies "monitor the onset" of disasters, "set up adequate Early Warning Systems" and "disseminate necessary warnings/alerts" for hazards where monitoring is possible with current technology [3].

What does IMD warn about?

IMD is the agency for weather-driven hazards. Its colour-coded warnings (green, yellow, orange and red) are explained in our guide to India's colour-coded weather warnings. IMD warns of heavy rain; forecasting what a river will do is, under the national plan, CWC's job.

What does CWC warn about?

CWC issues flood forecasts for rivers. Its April 2026 standard operating procedure (SOP) says that forecasts are issued at 350 stations, 200 for river levels (level forecasts) and 150 for inflow to reservoirs and barrages (inflow forecasts), and that more than 8,000 forecasts are issued in a flood season [4].

A level forecast is issued "once the water level in a river touches or is expected to touch" the pre-defined warning level, usually 1 m below the danger level, depending on the location. Its stated purpose is to help the local administration and other agencies decide on measures such as evacuating people and movable property [4]. The difference between the two levels is explained in warning level vs danger level for river gauges.

Two limits matter in the hills. First, CWC forecasts apply only at its listed forecast stations, which are on the larger rivers. A small stream in a side valley is usually not one of them. Second, a forecast station on a big river says little about a flash flood in a tributary, where the warning time can be very short; see flash floods vs river floods: warning time.

How does a forecast become a warning to the public?

The national plan describes the flow in two steps. The designated agencies "provide inputs to the MHA", the Ministry of Home Affairs, "which will issue alerts and warnings through various communication channels". Then "the relevant State Government and district administration shall disseminate such alerts and warnings on the ground through all possible methods of communications and public announcements" [3]. In the plan's responsibility framework, the state's role includes disseminating warnings "up to the last mile" [3].

In practice, a large part of this passes through a common digital platform. In December 2024 the Government told Parliament that it had approved pan-India implementation of a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) based Integrated Alert System. CAP is a standard message format. The system integrates the alerting agencies IMD, CWC, INCOIS, DGRE, GSI and FSI, and sends geo-targeted alerts for all 36 States and Union Territories through SMS, TV, radio, cell broadcast and other media [5]. It is known as SACHET and was developed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) with NDMA [6].

The plan describes the general route through the MHA; CWC's own SOP describes how its part of the chain works: its CAP alerts "will be initially dispatched to the first beneficiary viz. SDMAs, who will in turn create understandable warnings to warn the general public" [4]. More on this channel is in cell broadcast alerts in India: SACHET and CAP explained.

Observe and forecast      IMD (weather), CWC (rivers), GSI (landslides), SASE (avalanches)
        |
        v
Alert platform / MHA      CAP alert, geo-targeted; NDMA national coordination
        |
        v
State                     SDMA and State Emergency Operations Centre: understandable warning
        |
        v
District                  DDMA (Collector) and District EOC: local announcement, evacuation
        |
        v
Village and household     Panchayat, sirens, SMS, loudspeakers, volunteers

What do the SDMA and DDMA do?

The SDMA lays down state policy and plan, and the State Executive Committee under it coordinates and monitors disaster management in the state and may give directions to state departments [1]. The SDMA sits between the national agencies and the districts.

The DDMA is where the warning turns into action. Section 30 makes it "the district planning, coordinating and implementing body for disaster management" and section 34 lets it, during a threatening situation, restrict movement into a vulnerable area, carry out rescue and provide shelter [1]. It can also "establish emergency communication systems in the affected area" [1]. In other words, the powers to restrict movement, rescue and shelter people sit with the district, even though the numbers behind a warning come from CWC or IMD.

The plan also asks each state to coordinate with its local IMD office on forecasts, and on an alert system based on colour codes tied to different thresholds [3].

Where warnings fail between agencies

Seeing the chain laid out makes its weak links visible:

• Many hands. A flood warning may pass through a forecasting centre, the alert platform, the SDMA, the DDMA and a panchayat before it reaches a household. Each step adds time, and a small catchment may not have the hours to spare.
• Station coverage. A forecast exists only where there is a forecast station. Small hill streams rely on district-level thresholds and local observation.
• Different words. A colour on an IMD map, a forecast level from CWC and an evacuation order from a Collector are three different kinds of statement. Confusing them is a common cause of warnings that are ignored.
• The last mile. The plan makes dissemination "up to the last mile" a state responsibility [3], but a mobile message needs coverage and a siren needs power. How a flood early warning system works and early warning dissemination: sirens, SMS and CAP look at those engineering details.

A worked example (illustrative)

Suppose heavy rain is forecast for a hill district. The sequence might run as follows. IMD issues an orange district warning. Rain gauges show the catchment is wet, and a CWC level-forecast station downstream reaches its warning level, so CWC issues a level forecast and a CAP alert goes to the SDMA. The SDMA sends an understandable message to the districts concerned. The Collector, as chair of the DDMA, orders low-lying habitations along the river to be cleared and asks the tehsildar and panchayats to carry it out. Each agency did a different thing, and the warning worked only because all of them did.

Who is responsible for what: a summary

• IMD: forecasts and warns for weather hazards.
• CWC: forecasts river levels and reservoir inflows at its stations.
• GSI, SASE, INCOIS: landslides, avalanches and tsunamis respectively.
• NDMA: national policy, guidelines and coordination, and the alert platform together with C-DOT.
• SDMA: state policy and plan, and turning agency alerts into messages for the public.
• DDMA: district plan, local warnings, evacuation and response.

Key points

• The Disaster Management Act, 2005 creates NDMA, SDMAs and DDMAs, chaired by the Prime Minister, Chief Minister and Collector respectively. They plan and coordinate.
• Forecasting sits with designated central agencies: IMD for weather, CWC for floods, GSI for landslides, according to the National Disaster Management Plan.
• CWC flood forecasts are issued at its 350 forecast stations, usually once the level reaches the warning level, about 1 m below the danger level.
• Alerts travel from the agencies through the CAP-based SACHET platform to SDMAs, and from there to districts and communities.
• The Act gives the district authority the powers to act locally. A good local record of river level and rainfall helps that decision.

Where ClimMaTech fits

Every step in the chain above depends on what is measured at the river. At ClimMaTech we build the field end of it: Tarang, a radar water-level recorder, and PRAVAAH, which combines level and surface velocity, send readings that district teams can use against their own thresholds, and Rakshak sirens carry a warning to the last mile. Our flood warning page describes how these fit alongside the national agencies, not in place of them.

References

1. Government of India, The Disaster Management Act, 2005 (No. 53 of 2005), as enacted, sections 3, 14, 22, 25, 30 and 34. ndma.gov.in (PDF)
2. Government of India, The Disaster Management Act, 2005, as enacted, section 6, powers and functions of the National Authority. ndma.gov.in (PDF)
3. National Disaster Management Authority, Ministry of Home Affairs, National Disaster Management Plan, revised edition, November 2019, section 8.3 and Table 8-1, and section 8.10 (responsibility framework). ndma.gov.in (PDF)
4. Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Standard Operating Procedure for Flood Forecasting, April 2026, sections 1.1, 2.1 and 2.2. cwc.gov.in
5. Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Steps to protect human lives and livestock during natural disasters (written reply in the Rajya Sabha), 4 December 2024. pib.gov.in
6. Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Communications, C-DOT and NDMA organise All India Workshop on CAP based Integrated Alert System, SACHET, 31 August 2022. pib.gov.in