Future Ready Disaster Management in Himalayas

Context: The Monsoon 2025 floods across J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand exposed the ecological fragility of India’s mountain states and underscored the urgent need for a future-ready disaster management framework in the Himalayas.

Disaster Management in Himalayas: Technology in Action

• Drones: Used extensively for damage assessment, guidance of relief teams, and search & rescue.
• Satellite Communication & OneWeb links: Enabled coordination in areas where mobile towers collapsed.
• Doppler Radars & Nowcasting by IMD: Gave short-term forecasts for localised heavy rainfall.
• Temporary Incident Command Posts (ICPs): Allowed real-time coordination across agencies.
• GIS-based mapping: Supported route planning and resource allocation.

Scope for Expansion

• GSI must expand landslide mapping based on soil soaking and slope gradients.
• NRSC should monitor glacial lakes and debris flows 24×7.
• Predictive surveillance: Drones to continuously monitor vulnerable slopes, rivers, and glaciers.
• AI models: Integrating hydro-meteorological data for early prediction of flash floods and cloudbursts.
• Urban resilience: Adoption of local models such as the Gorakhpur Model of flood control.

Challenges Highlighted in the Himalayas

• Awareness Deficit: Despite lakhs of SMS alerts and the Sachet app, many citizens were unsure how to respond.
• Pilgrimage Vulnerability: Yatras like Machail, Manimahesh, and Gangotri continued even under red alerts, straining response capacity.
• Unchecked Development: Construction in riverbeds, slope destabilisation, and disregard for building codes. Illegal mining weakened embankments.
• Citizen Preparedness Gaps: Lack of community drills, minimal knowledge of evacuation routes or nearest shelters.
• Technology Gaps: Doppler radar network remains sparse across valleys; early warning systems are not yet localised.
• Response-Centric Approach: Focus remains on post-disaster action; prevention and resilience are still under-emphasised.
• Institutional Weaknesses: DDMAs often lack technical expertise and integration with civil society.

Way Forward

Community-Centric Preparedness:

• Deepen the Aapda Mitra Programme into schools, panchayats, and RWAs.
• Treat mock drills as essential training, not token exercises.
• Citizen handbooks with evacuation protocols.

Scaling Technology

• A dense network of Doppler radars across valleys.
• GIS-based risk mapping of slopes, rivers, and villages.
• Drone-based predictive surveillance, coupled with AI forecasting models.
• NRSC to monitor glacial lakes and debris flows

Stronger Infrastructure & “Build Back Better”

• Roads rebuilt with slope stabilisation techniques.
• Enforce no-build zones along rivers and strict adherence to seismic building codes.
• Reinforce river embankments and curb illegal sand mining.

Institutional Strengthening

• Build a technically oriented disaster management cadre.
• Empower DDMAs to integrate civil society and local knowledge.
• Mandate disaster awareness events in schools and workplaces.

Balancing Development & Ecology

• Adopt sustainable construction practices.
• Promote eco-tourism and regulate pilgrim footfall with seasonal restrictions.

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