15 per cent of the country prone to landslide: Govt

About 15 per cent of the country is landslide-prone and as on today there is no warning system that can predict its occurrence, the government today said.
In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Y S Chowdary, Minister of State in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said all the landslide-prone streches are mapped.
"About 15 per cent of India is landslide prone and all such zones are mapped. The landslide prone stretches may tentatively be identified through Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) studies and slope stability studies.
"However, landslide prone vulnerable zones are mapped so as to alert local governments to put such areas under watch in association with heavy rainfall warnings as and when issues for such zones," Chowdary said.

Fifteen soldiers had died recently in two avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir.
Monitoring of snow accumulation and avalanche early warning is carried out by the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), a laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation for vulnerable upper reaches of Himalayas.

He said, regular operational avalanche warnings are issued to the army and civilian population in snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
The precautionary measure include the passive control of avalanche to ensure safe mobility, training to the troops, (approximately 5,000 every year) and active control of avalanches by building control structures.

In response to another question, Chowdary said the IMD is looking to transfer its massive troves of data into the cloud.
Replying to another question, the minister added that Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva (GKMS) has the potential of generating net economic benefit up to Rs 3.3 lakh crore when agro-meteorological advisory is fully utilised by about 95 million dependent households.