Kishan Reddy inaugurates NLFC portal
Kolkata: Union minister of coal and mines, G Kishan Reddy inaugurated the National Landslide Forecasting Centre (NLFC) at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) Salt Lake campus. He also launched the Bhusanket web portal and Bhooskhalan mobile app.
The NLFC is an initiative aimed at landslide hazard mitigation in India. Soon after this inauguration, residents of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, and Nilgiri districts will benefit from live forecasting reports starting July 20, 2024. It will eventually issue early warning bulletins for all landslide-prone states, with the regional Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) expected to be operational nationwide by 2030. Equipped with advanced technology, the NLFC will provide early information to local administrations and communities, update landslide inventories, and integrate real-time rainfall and slope instability data for enhanced forecasting accuracy.
The launch of the Bhusanket web portal marks a major step toward disaster risk reduction. This web portal will facilitate the dissemination of relevant data and information on landslide hazards, initiating short-range and medium-range landslide forecasting in the country. Integrated with the web portal, the user-friendly Bhooskhalan mobile app will enable quick dissemination of daily landslide forecasts and allow stakeholders to share and update spatial and temporal information on landslide occurrences. The app is available on the Bhusanket web portal and will soon be available on the Google Play store.
In his address, Reddy emphasised GSI’s critical role in disaster management, particularly in landslide hazard mitigation. GSI has significantly expanded from its initial focus on coal exploration to include mapping rock types, geological structures, and exploring strategic and critical minerals. The successful launch of the National Geoscience Data Repository (NGDR) and the migration of the OCBIS portal to the OCI cloud are testaments to GSI’s commitment to innovation and efficiency. The programme was graced by dignitaries from various disaster management agencies and stakeholder organisations, besides Janardan Prasad, director general, GSI, and other senior officials of the organisation.
