Early Warning System Crucial to Mitigate Landslide Disasters in India

As severe rains wreak havoc in India's hill states, experts emphasize the need for an accurate early warning system to predict landslides and facilitate timely evacuations. Recent disasters in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have underscored the crucial role of precise rainfall correlations in mitigating landslide risks.

Despite the pressing need, granular studies or nationwide EWS for landslide forecasting are lacking. The Geological Survey of India's forecasts often fall short, as seen in the incomplete predictions leading up to the catastrophic landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district. Local initiatives, such as Maharashtra's community-run Satark project, are striving to fill this gap by issuing timely landslide alerts based on continuous rain monitoring.

Funded by the Pune-based Centre for Citizen Science, the Satark project has shown promising results, successfully predicting landslides in the Sahyadri ranges. Nonetheless, formal governmental collaboration remains limited. The National Disaster Management Authority acknowledges the high costs of existing monitoring technologies and is in dire need of low-cost solutions to implement nationwide.

(With inputs from agencies.)