Low cost warning system: IIT Mandi incubator creates a device to sense landslides before they happen

The Indian Institute of Technology Mandi has said it has developed a low-cost monitoring and warning system against landslides—a common occurrence in the Himalayan mountain belt. Claimed to sense landslides before they happen, it has been developed by Himachal Pradesh-based IIT Mandi’s Catalyst incubator.

Every year, about 200 lives are lost due to landslides in India and Rs 550 crore is spent to cover damages to infrastructure; the existing landslide monitoring/warning technologies cost crores of rupees, questioning their large-scale deployment.

Prof Varun Dutt of the School of Computing and Electrical Engineering at IIT Mandi said, “This system is developed by the faculty-student group iIoTs (Intelligent IoT Solutions)—incubated by Catalyst. It costs only Rs 20,000, and can record weather parameters and soil properties.”

iIoTs has deployed 10 devices at landslide-prone sites on Mandi-Jogindarnagar and Mandi-Kullu highways. They detect major soil movement, and traffic is alerted using blinkers provided along the road. IIT Mandi added it is one of the largest such deployments in India till now, and iIoTs said it has filed patents on the technology.