Landslide warning system for Sikkim

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 27 Sep 2018, Gangtok: The Amrita University, in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority and the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority, is setting up a state of-the-art early landslides warning system in the populated landslide-prone area of Gangtok to prevent loss of lives in the event of a landslide.

Ganesh Khanal, the additional director of SSDMA and land revenue department, said the system was being installed by Amrita University's Centre for Wireless Networks and Application (CWNA) located at Kollam in Kerala and is being funded by the Union ministry of earth sciences.

"The system is being installed in the Chandmari area of Gangtok which has an active landslide spread over about 150 acres. The area has over 100 houses and the people living there can be evacuated if the system provides us with early warning on the likelihood of landslides taking place in that particular area," he told The Telegraph.

Two-hundred sensors have been placed deep beneath the earth to monitor the earth movement. The sensors can measure geophysical and hydrological parameters like rainfall, pore pressure and seismic activity. "The system collects real-time data from the sensors and performs basic analysis at the control centre on the site, and relays it to the data management laboratory in Kollam," said Khanal.

Khanal said depending on the success of the Chandmari experiment, the Sikkim government would install similar systems in other landslideprone areas of the state.

"For the Chandmari project, the state government is providing the control room and backup power," he said..