India needs an urgent early warning system for landslides, but challenges abound

Mumbai: On September 24, a major landslide hit a water pump at Chaba in the Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh and reportedly damaged a pipeline worth Rs 5 crore that supplied water to the district. Earlier in June, relentless rains led to deadly landslides in Manipur’s Noney district, killing more than 53 people and leading to multiple casualties in the form of damage to property and displacement.

Landslides are an annual occurrence during monsoons, but developmental activities and the climate crisis have been increasing the risk of these disasters. In 2022, 10 states reported 182 landslide-related fatalities across multiple districts in the monsoon, according to data available with the Ministry of Home Affairs’ National Emergency Response Centre until September 2022.

“Landslides are very common during heavy rainfall or cloudbursts,” said Sridhar Balasubramanian, faculty at the Interdisciplinary Programme on Climate Studies Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. “A robust and reliable early warning system would definitely help in planning, management and saving lives.”