Geological Survey of India to launch early landslide warning system in 2026

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) revealed that the country is set to have an early landslide warning system operational across the nation in 2026.

According to GSI, about 12.6% of India’s total land, or 0.42 million square kilometers, is prone to landslides.

The early landslide warning system started as a multidisciplinary, multi-agency team collaboration between three countries, and was led by researchers at the British Geological Survey and King’s College London.

More specifically, the UK, Italy and India took part in the project, called the LANDSLIP project, which was funded through a grant by the UKRI’s NERC/FCDO Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience (SHEAR) program, between 2016 and 2022.

In its early stages, the LANDSLIP project focused on two regions, the districts of Nilgiris and Darjeeling, and enabled authorities to receive daily forecast bulletins, regarding rainfall-triggered landslides during the 2020 and 2021 monsoon seasons.

The GSI is now in the process of expanding the system nationwide, to cover different states in phases from 2026 onwards.

As GSI Deputy Director General, Asit Saha said, landslide susceptibility mapping has been made throughout the nation on a 1:50,000 scale for areas prone to landslides. High susceptibility areas were identified and the GSI is now in the process of mapping on a 1:10,000 scale for critical zones.

In addition to the aforementioned, active fault mapping, seismic micro-zonation and neotectonic studies are carried out in selected areas. Geochemical mapping is also expected to be completed this year, while geophysical mapping is expected to be completed in three to four years.