Kanyakumari collector warns of action against those spreading Tsunami rumours 

M K Ananth | tnn | Nov 23, 2017, 08:56 IST



KANYAKUMARI: Warning people spreading panic by sending fake messages on social media that Tsunami will hit the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, Kanyakumari collector Sajjan Singh R Chavan has said that the culprits would be severely dealt with under Section 54 of the Disaster Managaement Act, 2005.

The need for the warning and reassurance to the people from the collector was necessitated as panic is spreading in several coastal districts across the state due to videos warning that major parts of coastal areas will be completely washed away in a Tsunami triggered by a major earthquake before December 31, this year.

There are at least a dozen such videos in YouTube that warn of Tsunami in various countries before December 31, of which six of them are Tamil Nadu centric. One of them is a video of a Thiruvananthapuram-based man who is claimed to have predicted the Tsunami in 2004 and other major incidents over the last two decades, using 'extrasensory perception' (ESP).

These videos and messages were viewed by a few lakh people and shared on Facebook and WhatsApp over the last two months. They have been going viral in the last two weeks as videos and messages in Tamil and English. This has also become a highly debated topic in social media.

Chavan said that such messages on social media are not authentic. He said that Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre For Ocean Information Services is the authentic body that is studying earthquakes in the sea round-the-clock and analysing them scientifically.

"To confirm such 'warning', it is passed on as an emergency messages to the disaster management emergency centres of the Union and state governments. It is then passed on to the public immediately and preventive measures are carried out. No such information has been received till now. So those spreading rumours on such serious issues will be imprisoned for a year or pay a fine," he said.

The collector also asked people not to panic upon reading such unauthenticated messages and not to share them.

Fisherman Prasanth of Kuthenkuly fishing hamlet in Tirunelveli district said that he got the video on WhatsApp few days ago and this has worried him and fellow fishermen. "We are yet to recover from the Tsunami that struck our coasts on December 26, 2004. And, the latest message warning of a worse Tsunami that would destroy coastal areas is worrying," the 23-year-old told TOI.

President of the International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDENT) Justin Antony said that there is no proof for the messages that are spread on social media. "Such rumours are new as they were not spread for nearly 13 years since Tsunami hit this region in 2004," he said.