Guwahati, August 16 /–/ In a significant step towards combating the menace of landslides in Assam, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on implementation of an experimental regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) was signed between the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) and Geological Survey of India (GSI) here on Friday.
The MoU was signed by Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, chief executive officer, ASDMA, and Siladitya Sengupta, deputy director general, Assam, GSI.
The problem of landslides keeps recurring every year in Assam. In addition to lives lost, several houses along with infrastructure have been damaged by landslides in the hilly terrains of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, Cachar, Karimganj and Kamrup (Metro) districts.
Of late, a major thrust area in landslide risk reduction has been the development of a regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) for a large area with inputs from static landslide susceptibility and hazard maps; dynamic short and long-term rainfall forecasts, etc.
In this context, the MoU between ASDMA and GSI was signed with the objective of institutional cooperation and implementation of an experimental regional Early Warning Forecast system for making an operational model on landslides for Dima Hasao and Cachar districts of Assam. It will encompass the entire state in future.
Sources in GSI informed that it has launched the “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.
