Lok Sabha Question No. 1228 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-09
Subject: Early Warning System for Landslides
Ministry: MINES
Asked by: D.K. Suresh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF MINES

## RAJYA SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1228 ANSWERED ON 09.02.2022

## EARLY WARNING SYSTEM FOR LANDSLIDES

1228.  SHRI D.K. SURESH:

Will the Minister of Mines be pleased to state:

- (a) whether Government has evolved an Early Warning System for landslides and glaciers related disasters in the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the steps taken by Government to have focussed research on developing such a system to minimize landslide induced disasters?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF MINES, COAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (SHRI PRALHAD JOSHI)

- (a):       Yes, Sir. Geological Survey of India (GSI), Ministry of Mines in collaboration with the British  Geological  Survey  (BGS)  under  the  National  Environmental  Research  Council (NERC), UK funded, multi-consortium LANDSLIP project (www.landslip.org) has developed a  prototype  regional  Landslide  Early Warning  System  (LEWS) for  India,  and  the  same is currently being evaluated and tested by GSI in two pilot areas in India at Darjeeling district, West  Bengal  and  the  Nilgiris  district,  Tamil  Nadu  and  similar  testing  procedure  is  also extended in  Kalimpong  district,  West  Bengal.    Further,  GSI  has  not  developed  any  early warning system for glacier related disasters in the country. However, GSI has conducted studies on melting of the glaciers by assessment of mass balance studies and monitoring the recession/ advancement of selected Himalayan glaciers.
- (b):       GSI through the LANDSLIP project (www.landslip.org) is engaged in developing an experimental regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) based on rainfall thresholds since 2017.  The LANDSLIP research has developed a prototype model in 2020 based on the terrain-specific rainfall thresholds for two test areas (Darjeeling district, West Bengal and the Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu). The LANDSLIP is currently in the process of transferring the above tools of regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) to the national nodal agency  (GSI)  for  carrying  out  a  similar  endeavour  in  multiple  landslide-prone  states  in India. Since 2020 monsoon, GSI has also started issuing daily landslide forecast bulletins during  monsoon to  the  district  administrations  in  two  pilot  areas  (Darjeeling  district,  West Bengal, and the Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu).

GSI is a part of the consortium constituted by NDMA involving scientists from various institutes/organizations  viz.  National  Institute  of  Hydrology  (NIH),  NRSC/  ISRO,  Wadia Institute  of  Himalayan  Geology  (WIHG), Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), IIT-Roorkee etc., with an objective to explore the possibility of suggesting methods of  monitoring  and  early  warning  to  forecast  site-specific  rock/  snow  avalanche  events including Glacier Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF)/ Landslide Lake Outburst Flood (LLOF) and reducing the cascading impacts like flash flood and landslides etc. as domino effects in the downstream  areas.  In  October  13,  2020,  the  National  Disaster  Management  Authority

(NDMA) has released guidelines on management of GLOF, summary of policy makers and compendium  (available  at  https://  ndma.gov.in/  sites  /default/  files/  PDF/  Guidelines/ Guidelines-on-Management-of-GLOFs.pdf).

(c):       GSI has initiated the R & D activities and the ground work for developing regional LEWS in other test areas like Uttarakhand, Kerala, Sikkim from 2021 and also has a plan to add  five additional states (e.g.,  Himachal  Pradesh,  Karnataka,  Assam,  Meghalaya, Mizoram) by 2022. The evaluation  and  calibration  of  the  models  will  continue  during  the next few monsoon years and the regional LEWS will be made operational in phases in all such 10 states after successful ground evaluation w.e.f. 2025 onwards. For this, GSI has signed MoUs with IMD, various SDMAs, and has also extended the MoU with BGS till 2025. To  execute  the  above  multi-disciplinary  task,  GSI  has  initiated  MoUs  with  other  national organizations like National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSC), National Centre for Medium Range  Weather  forecasting  (NCMRWF)  etc.  GSI  also  has  initiated  the  process  for establishing the National Landslide Forecasting Centre (NLFC) to integrate, generate and disseminate daily landslide forecast for multiple states from GSI headquarters, Kolkata.

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