Lok Sabha Question No. 440 (STARRED), answered on 2025-04-01
Subject: Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Mitigation
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat, Shri Balabhadra Majhi

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## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *440

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 01 ST  APRIL, 2025/ CHAITRA 11, 1947 (SAKA)

GLACIAL LAKE OUTBURST FLOOD MITIGATION

*440.      SHRI BALABHADRA MAJHI: SHRI TRIVENDRA SINGH RAWAT:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) the steps being taken to strengthen early warning systems, particularly in remote and inaccessible areas;
- (b) the details of plans of the Government to involve local communities in monitoring and alerting mechanisms to ensure last-mile connectivity;
- (c) the manner in which the Government plans to assess and minimize the economic impact of potential Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) events on local communities including tourism-dependent regions;
- (d) whether there are plans to extend similar mitigation measures to other Himalayan States or regions facing GLOF risks in the future; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)

(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the table of the House.

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

## STATEMENT IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF THE STARRED QUESTION NO. 440* FOR ANSWER IN LOK SABHA ON 01.04.2025

Strengthening of Early Warning Systems is prerequisite for preparedness measures and is the most important element of entire cycle of disaster management.

The  Prime  Minister  has  enunciated  ten-point  agenda  on  Disaster  Risk Reduction (DRR) during the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction  (AMCDRR)  held  in  New  Delhi  in  November  2016.  The  allinclusive agenda includes the following: -

'Leverage technology to enhance the efficiency of disaster risk management efforts.' and 'Build on local capacity and initiative to enhance disaster risk reduction'.

The Government effectively deploys technologies for improved early warning and forecasting of disaster in the vulnerable areas. Central Government has designated nodal agencies for early warning of different natural disasters.

To promote the use of modern technologies and to strengthen the early warning  system  for  natural  disasters,  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences  has

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

launched  a  Multi-faceted  transformative  approach  namely  'Mission Mausam'  for  the  period  2024-2026  with  the  goal  of  making  India  a 'weather-ready and climate smart' nation.

Under  the  National  Cyclone  Risk  Mitigation  Project  (NCRMP)  Early Warning Systems have been installed in the Coastal States, which have proved to be of great help in alert dissemination to the coastal community during recent cyclones.

'Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) based Integrated Alert System' has been initiated  with  an  outlay  of  Rs.  354.83  Crore,  for  dissemination  of  geo targeted early warnings/alerts related to disasters to the citizens of India for all 36 States/UTs using various disseminating medium like SMS, TV, Radio, Indian Railways, Costal Sirens, Cell broadcast, Internet (RSS feed &  Browser  Notification),  Satellite  Receiver  of  GAGAN  &  NavIC  etc., through integration of all alerting agencies, [India Meteorological Department  (IMD),  Central  Water  Commission  (CWC),  Indian  National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Defence Geo-informatics Research  Establishment  (DGRE),  Geological  Survey  of  India  (GSI)  and Forest Survey of India (FSI)].

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

In CAP system, the alerts related to various disasters are generated by Alert  Generating  Agencies  like  IMD,  CWC,  INCOIS,  DGRE  &  FSI  and moderated by SDMAs of concern States/UTs.  The alerts are sent to geo targeted areas in regional languages. There is a web-based dashboard to disaster  managers  for  approving/editing  alerts  and  choosing  media  for dissemination. The system  has been used successfully in recent disasters.  More than 4500 crore SMS alerts have been disseminated so far using CAP.

National  Disaster  Management  Authority  (NDMA)  has  also  initiated  a project for Pan India, end-to-end secure and foolproof Disaster Grade Cell Broadcasting System (CBS) to improve faster dissemination of alert / early warning messages to the citizen.

Defence  Geoinformatics  Research  Establishment  (DGRE),  Chandigarh under Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is also the nodal agency for studying and developing avalanche mitigation technologies.  DGRE has installed 72 Snow Meteorological Observatories and 45 Automated Weather Stations (AWS).

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

India Metrological Department (IMD) issues regular and precise weather forecasts & warning bulletins including for cyclones to all the affected/ likely affected States/ UTs.

IMD  uses  a  suite  of  quality  observations  from  Satellites,  Radars  and Conventional & Automatic Weather Stations for monitoring of cyclones developing over the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. It includes INSAT 3D, 3DR and SCATSAT satellites, Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) along the coast and coastal Automated Weather Stations (AWS), High wind speed recorders,  Automatic  Rain  Gauges  (ARGs),  Meteorological  buoys  and ships.

NDMA also conducts capacity building programmes, organizes awareness workshops  and  fosters  community-based  risk  reduction  strategies  and also  trainings  for  monitoring  and  alert  mechanism  to  ensure  last  mile connectivity.

Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) monitors the glaciers and provides comprehensive analysis of factors that trigger hazards and its associated  downstream  risks  to  significantly  enhance  early  warning capabilities and disaster preparedness.   WIHG has prepared glacial lake

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

inventories for Uttarakhand (2015) and Himachal Pradesh (2018), identifying 1,266 lakes (7.6 km²) in Uttarakhand and 958 lakes (9.6 km²) in Himachal Pradesh.

Central Water Commission (CWC) monitors 902 Glacial lakes and water bodies, to enable the detection of relative change in water spread areas of Glacial lakes and water bodies as well as identifying those ones which have expanded substantially during its monitoring months.

Central Government has approved National Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF)  Risk  Mitigation  Project  (NGRMP)  for  its  implementation  in  four states namely,  Arunachal  Pradesh,  Himachal  Pradesh,  Sikkim  and Uttarakhand at a financial outlay of Rs. 150.00 crore.

NGRMP  is  aimed  at  reducing  the  risks  associated  with  glacial  lake outburst floods, particularly in regions that are highly susceptible to such natural disasters.  The objectives of NGRMP project are:

- (i) Prevent loss of life and reduce economic loss and damage to critical infrastructure due to GLOF and similar events.
- (ii) Strengthen the early warning and monitoring capacities based on last mile connectivity.

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

- (iii) Strengthen scientific and technical capabilities in GLOF  risk reduction  and  mitigation  at  local  levels  through  strengthening  of local level institutions and communities.
- (iv) Use of indigenous knowledge and scientific cutting-edge mitigation measures to reduce and mitigate GLOF risk.

NGRMP, approved by the Government, has one of its components as GLOF monitoring and Early Warning Systems (EWS) including remote sensing data, community involvement for monitoring, alerting / dissemination.

Two Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) have been installed in Sikkim with further deployments of EWS planned in collaboration with C-DAC, ISRO and Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad to provide early warning to local communities in case of any GLOF event.

CWC has finalized the criteria for Risk Indexing of Glacial Lakes offering a  structured  approach for  identifying  and  ranking  such  lakes based on their likelihood of failure and potential damage they could cause in the event of GLOF.

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## L.S.S.Q.NO. *440 FOR 01.04.2025

A Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction (CoDRR) under NDMA involving representatives from six Himalayan States / Union Territories and other Stakeholders, has identified a set of high risk glacial lakes for sending expeditions to  directly  assess  these  lakes  and  prepare  comprehensive mitigation strategies in terms of setting up EWS / other structural and nonstructural measures.

Subsequent to Teesta-III  Hydroelectric  dam  collapse  in  October,  2023, CWC has decided to review the design flood of all the existing and under construction dams vulnerable to GLOFs to ensure their adequate spillway capacity  for  a  combination  of  Probable  Maximum  Flood  /  Standard Probable  Flood  and  GLOF.  Further,  GLOF  Studies  has  been  made mandatory  for  all  new  dams  planned  having  Glacial  Lakes  in  their catchments.

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