 The
National Hydrographic
Department stands on a foundation of centuries
of maritime tradition and the centuries go back
much beyond the colonial times into the distant
past of India. While the Euro centric English
Historians would argue that the first sailors
were the Phoenicians of Asia Minor who sailed
the Mediterranean in 2000 BC, What is called
'Navigation' today was referred to by the
ancient Sanskrit word 'Navgati'. The first
cartographers of Indian waters were the sailor
of Kutch in the present Indian state of Gujrat,
who traded in the Arabian Sea rim, and the Chola
sailors who helped to establish the benign
empire of SriVijaya in present day Indonesia, in
the 11th century AD.
The
first Navigational chart anywhere was made in
the 13th century. Its growth was
spurred by the appearance of the magnetic
compass in the following century. Quite like for
the other parts of the World, the colonial era
saw a spurt in charting activity in the Indian
waters. The British East India Company chalked
out an ambitious charting programme that
stretched from the red Sea, around the Indian
subcontinent through to the China Sea. In 1770
they found necessary to formally appoint a
Hydrographer to the East India Company. In 1947
the empire of Hydrography was handed back as the
Marine Survey of India headed by a Surveyor in
Charge stationed at Calcutta. The office found
its present home and form in 1954 when it was
established at Dehradun with the appointment of
Captain Jal Cursetji of the Indian Navy as the
Chief Hydrographer. He later rose to become the
Chief of Naval Staff. In recognition of the
quality of work, the department was awarded ISO
9002 certificate in 1999.
The
Department provides reliable and updated
information for safety of navigation at sea
under SOLAS regulations and for offshore
development, projects of economic importance,
through detailed surveys and research programmes.
It interacts with various agencies at
national/international levels in all related
fields of Hydrography including Coastal Zone
management, Environmental Protection and
scientific quest at sea. India,
as a leading maritime nation in the world, is
constantly geared to meet the challenges of the
future by expanding all facets of Hydrography.
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THE
OBJECTIVE OF NATIONAL HYDROGRAPHIC
DEPARTMENT |
Our
corporate objective is to ensure total
satisfaction of the customer needs for
precise and accurate hydrographic and
oceanographic products and service to the
international & national agencies, duly
updated by a reliable mechanism.
Today
the department comprises of following :-
- National
Hydrographic Office at Dehradun
- National
Hydrographic School at Goa
- Eight Modern
Survey Ships
- Naval Chart
Depots at Mumbai and Vishakapatnam
- Hydrographic
Survey Units at Mumbai (Bombay) and Kochi
(Cochin)
- Network of
Chart Agents Spread over the Country for
Sale of Charts
The
Activities at National Hydrographic Department
include the following :-
- Planing of
Hydrographic Surveys
- Issue of
directives to the Survey Ships
- Examination
and Review of Data
- Chart
Production
- Archival of
data and Custody of Historical Data
- Sale of
products and Services
- Issue of
Notices to Mariners and Navarea Warnings for
Navarea VIII
- Project
Surveys
- International
Hydrographic Co-operation
- Training
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