Assam signs MoU with Geological Survey of India for developing early warning system to combat landslides

The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) on Friday signed a MoU with Geological Survey of India (GSI) for developing an experimental regional landslide early warning system in order to combat the problem of landslides.

The MoU was signed between Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, Chief Executive Officer, ASDMA and Siladitya Sengupta, Deputy Director General, GSI.

As per the MoU, the ASDMA and GSI will try to implement an experimental regional early warning forecast system for making an operational model on landslides initially for Dima Hasao and Cachar, two landslide-prone districts in Assam. The system will be developed for a large area with inputs from static landslide susceptibility and hazard maps; dynamic short and long-term rainfall forecasts, beside others. It will be gradually expanded to the rest of the state.

Assam reports serious floods during almost every Monsoon and Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, Cachar, Karimganj, and Kamrup Metro (Guwahati) districts witness serious landslides leading to deaths and destruction.

"The problem 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 along with infrastructures are destroyed due to the landslides in the hilly terrains. During recent times, one of the major thrust areas in landslide risk reduction is the development of a regional landslide early warning system," the ASDMA said in a statement.

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