Maha Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis Orders To Set Up India’s 1st State Level Landslides Monitoring & Study Institute

Mumbai: To address the growing incidence of landslides and prevent further loss of lives and property, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr.Devendra Fadnavis today accepted the demand raised by MLA Adv Ashish Shelar & instructed Disaster Management Secretary to immediately form a committee to start the process for setting up India’s 1st state-level specialized institute for study & monitoring of landslides in the urban and hilly regions of Maharashtra.

Dr.Vijay Page, Director of Bramha Research Foundation had recently appealed to the Deputy Chief Minister for setting up “Sahyadri Institute Geoinformatics Research & Monitoring” (SIGRAM) on lines of Govt of India’s Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE), for study, monitoring of hilly, landslide prone regions of Maharashtra & to evolve strategies to tackle this.

Speaking on this topic, Dr.Vijay Page said “Increasing extreme rainfall events, coupled with forest cover reduction, growing human settlements in landslide prone areas endanger life & property for lakhs of residents, across the Western Ghats, Sahyadri region of Maharashtra.”

“As per a 2020 study by Geological Survey of India 225 villages of Maharashtra are classified as landslide prone. In Mumbai city alone, 74 regions have been identified as landslide prone areas. There is an urgent need to assess the situation and devise scientific strategies to address this situation and we offered our subject expertise to the Government in this matter. I am thankful to the Government of Maharashtra and Deputy Chief Minister Shri Fadnavis for taking cognizance of the situation,” he added.

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