GSI starts preparing landslide warning system for Darjeeling Himalayan region

KOLKATA: Geological Survey of India has started working on an experimental Regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) for the entire Darjeeling Himalayan region which consists of Singalila range, Darjeeling-Kurseong range, Ghoom-Simana range among others. The system, once operational, will be able to predict landslide till the block level.
For the past few years the GSI had been working with European agencies and researchers with expertise in landscape, climate, social dynamics for developing this LEWS.and that will now be going through ground validation for a few monsoon years. A few months back, three people were killed in Darjeeling during a landslide and another one in June, which damaged a portion of a road cutting off NH 55. Models like LEWS will be beneficial in avoiding such incidents, experts feel.
Earlier the GSI had started working on a community based early warning system for landslides in Darjeeling area in a much smaller but intensive way at a village level. “This LEWS is a broader based regional early warning model where we will verify efficacy of the current model for forecasting landslides. We will have to gather data and study its efficacy for the next few monsoon years,” said Saibal Ghosh, director GHRM centre of GSI.
Meanwhile, the central agency has prepared a landslide susceptibility maps through National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (NLSM) project, which covers the entire 4.2 lakh square km landslide prone area in India, including the mountainous areas in West Bengal.
Susceptible areas in this map, including portions of north Bengal, are flagged as red or high susceptibility zones. In the experimental LEWS, six blocks in the Darjeeling area, the GSI is coming out with an experimental landslide forecast bulletin each day for the district authority for any possible landslide in these areas for use in testing and validation. “However, for regional LEWS, predicting smaller and isolated man-made landslides in urban settlement area may not be feasible," said a GSI official.