A real time, landslide warning system has been set up along the Sikkim-Darjeeling belt which is prone to landslides.
The landslide warning system consists of 200 sensors and aims to prevent loss of human lives along the hilly and mountainous areas of Sikkim.
The system can measure geophysical and hydrological parameters like rainfall, pore pressure, seismic activity, issue warnings 24 hours ago so that necessary steps can be taken before a disaster.
Amrita University of Kerala in partnership with the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority designed the system.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences together with the British Geological Society and the United Kingdom’s meteorological department collected funds of around Rs 5 crores for this project.
The system will monitor an area of around 150 acres at Chandmari village in Gangtok amidst hill slopes.
The researchers concerned with this project said that the sensors will collect real time data and analyze this data at the local control centre. The analyzed data will be send to Data Management Center at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and accordingly the researchers will determine geological and hydrological factors and the response of the hill with respect to dynamic and real-time meteorological variations to develop a warning, reports The Assam Tribune.
Amrita University Vice-Chancellor Venkat Rangan said, “After successfully commissioning India’s first such system in Munnar in Kerala, the university has now started a second installation in Sikkim to guard against rainfall-induced landslides in the Sikkim-Darjeeling belt”.