India to get new landslide warning system soon, prototype test underway

Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) is currently being evaluated and tested by GSI in two pilot areas in India – in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, and the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.

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New Delhi: Geological Survey of India (GSI), Ministry of Mines in collaboration with the British Geological Survey 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 – in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, and the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.

GSI through the LANDSLIP project 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 the two test areas - Darjeeling and the Nilgiris.

The LANDSLIP is currently in the process of transferring the above tools of regional 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 for testing and evaluation.

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 - Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Meghalaya, and Mizoram by 2022.