Landslide warning mechanism: Assam State Disaster Management Authority and Geological Survey of India sign MoU

GUWAHATI: The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) and the Geological Survey of India (GSI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement an experimental regional landslide early warning mechanism in the state.

The MoU on Implementation of Experimental Regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) was signed by Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, Chief Executive Officer, ASDMA, and Siladitya Sengupta, Deputy Director General, SU: Assam, GSI.

The menace of landslides sometimes goes unnoticed, or individual landslides are being dealt with ad-hoc response mechanisms, and the problem keeps on recurring every year. In addition to lives lost, large numbers of houses and infrastructure bear the brunt of the landslides in the hilly terrains of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, Cachar, Karimganj, and Kamrup (M) districts.

In the recent past, one of the major thrust areas in landslide risk reduction has been the development of a regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) for a large area with inputs from static landslide susceptibility and hazard maps, dynamic short- and long-term rainfall forecasts, etc. In this context, this MoU was signed between the ASDMA and the GSI with the objective of institutional cooperation and the implementation of an experimental regional early warning forecast system for making an operational model for landslides in Dima Hasao and Cachar districts of Assam. It would encompass all of the state in the future.

GSI said that it has launched the “Bhooskhalan” app, where people, institutions, and government agencies, etc., can upload incidences of landslides in their respective areas to make it more efficient in predicting and mitigating disasters through cloud sourcing. A portal to get all the updates about landslides in India called GSI’s “Bhusanket” is now available online as well.

Present in the meeting were Dainia C. War, Director, SU:Assam, GSI, along with other officials from ASDMA and GSI. GSI officials from Kolkata joined online, including DDG (MIVA), GSI, Harish Bahuguna, Director NLFC Akshay Mishra, and other officials.

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