Union coal minister to inaugurate 175th foundation day celebrations of GSI on March 4

Kolkata, Feb 27 (PTI) Union Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy will inaugurate the 175th Foundation Day celebrations of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) on March 4 covering its journey from discovering coal for railways to driving cutting-edge innovations in geo science.
    The highlight of the event will be issuing a special postal cover and two geoscientific mobile apps and a photo gallery highlighting GSI's journey, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

    On March 2, GSI will organise a Pan-Indian walkathon bringing together geoscientists, policy makers, students and members of the public in Salt Lake area of Kolkata as well as across all GSI offices in the country, Director General Asit Saha told reporters.
    Established in 1851 by Sir Thomas Oldham, GSI has played a pioneering role in geological mapping, mineral exploration, disaster studies and geoscientific research significantly contributing to India's growth.
    Saha said the GSI also signed an MoU with Italian research institute for geo-hydrological protection CNR-IRPI recently to add more teeth to disaster risk reduction effort with an aim to operationalise early warning systems.
    As the nodal agency for landslide hazard studies, GSI has set up National Landslide Forecasting Centre (NLFC), as India's first operational landslide prediction system.

    Asked about recurrence of flash floods in Himalayan foothills covering north Bengal districts due to sudden heavy rains in Bhutan, he said, "On the issue of forecasting of glacier melt, sudden release of lake waters, GSI is working on pilot basis with central agencies like ISRO for IoT (internet of things)-based sensor networks to enhance real time monitoring of specifc region-centric locations in the Himalayan states."
    "In Darjeeling Hills, Kalimpong of West Bengal, in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu, in hilly places of Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Ladakh we are working for disaster-risk reduction efforts," he said.
    NLFC has also commenced issuing operational landslide forecast bulletins for Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts and in Nilgiri, he said.
"To strengthen its landslide early warning system, GSI has undertaken four projects - covering 16 landslide prone districts across 11 states including Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh with daily experimental bulletins sent to district authorities during monsoon for ground validation," he said.
The centre aims to expand its coverage to all land-slide prone areas across the country by 2030.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)