| Sanction Date: | 18.11.2025 | |||
| Project Category | Category I | |||
| Year | 2025-2026 | |||
| Project Duration | 3 Years | |||
| BTA : | WRM | |||
| Project Site/ State/ Districts/ Villages Covered: |
Kullu District in Himachal Pradesh |
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| Organization/ Implementation Agency: | Department of Civil Engineering, NIT-Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh | |||
| Project Partners: | S.No. | Name | ||
| 1. | Sewa Bharti Himachal Pradesh | |||
| Lead Proponent: | Dr. Chander Prakash |
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| Project Brief Description: | The Himalayan region, especially Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district, faces increasing cloudburst events—intense rainfall (>75 mm/hour) within short spans—triggering flash floods, landslides, and cascading socio-economic and ecological losses. Recent disasters like the 2023 Sainj Valley and 2018 Chhakinala cloudbursts caused fatalities, displacement, and destruction of critical infrastructure, while also damaging agriculture, horticulture, tourism, and biodiversity in fragile ecosystems, including the Great Himalayan National Park. Vulnerable populations, particularly women, children, the elderly, and indigenous groups, bear disproportionate impacts, deepening poverty and inequality. Despite these risks, existing forecasting and early warning systems (EWS) lack the spatial precision, integration, and community focus needed for effective mitigation. This project addresses the gap through an end-to-end framework integrating: remote sensing and GIS hotspot mapping; high-resolution WRF-based weather modelling; machine learning on historical datasets; real-time data assimilation from radars, satellites, and automated gauges; and impact-based flood simulations. A community-driven EWS will be established using automated sensors, mobile alerts, and sirens tailored to Kullu’s terrain. Complementary strategies include slope stabilization, afforestation, resilient village planning, and drainage improvements, coupled with inclusive capacity building. By blending advanced science with local preparedness, the project enhances disaster resilience in Kullu and offers a scalable model for cloudburst-prone regions across the Indian Himalayan Region. | |||
| Beneficiaries/ Stakeholders: |
• Local Communities (≈50,000 in Kullu): Farmers, shepherds, small businesses, tour operators, and vulnerable groups (women-headed households, elderly, children, differently-abled) gain safety through improved early warnings, training, and preparedness. |
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| Activity Chart (For 3 years) | ||||
| Total Grants (in Rs.) | Rs. 35,000,000/- (Rupees Three Crore Fifty Lakh Only) | |||
| Project Objectives | Quantifiable Deliverables | Monitoring Indicators |
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• Analyze historical cloudburst events in the Kullu region to understand their frequency, spatial distribution, causes, and impacts. • Develop a remote sensing and climate modeling framework to predict cloudburst occurrences using GIS and Machine Learning. • Establish a pilot Early Warning System (EWS) for cloudburst-triggered disasters in selected vulnerable sub-valleys of Kullu. • Assess the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of cloudburst events on local communities, infrastructure, natural resources, and biodiversity. • Develop and promote mitigation strategies and community preparedness to reduce cloudburst disaster risks in Kullu. |
• Historical cloudburst database and spatial-temporal analysis report for Kullu. • GIS and ML-based predictive modeling framework with hazard maps. • Pilot Early Warning System (EWS) in selected vulnerable sub-valleys. • Socioeconomic and environmental impact assessment report. • Mitigation strategy package and community preparedness toolkit. • Knowledge products: SOPs, training materials, and policy brief |
• Monitoring in comparison to the baseline information/ data to be provided by the proponent: • No. of historical events mapped and analyzed. • Model accuracy, prediction lead time, and validation performance. • EWS functionality (uptime, alert frequency, community reach). • Households, infrastructure, and ecological zones assessed for impacts. • No. of community members trained and preparedness activities conducted. • No. of research papers, technical reports, and policy documents published. |
| S.No. | No. of Sanctioned Post | Salary (Sanctioned) |
| 1. | 01 RA | @ Rs.58,000/- + 10% HRA |
| 2. | 04 SRF | @ Rs.42,000/- + 10% HRA |
| 3. | 04 JRF | @ Rs.37,000/- + 10% HRA |
| 4. | 01 Data Analyst-cum-Office Assistant | @ Rs.20,000/- |
| 5. | Consultancy services | @Rs.1,20,000/- for 02 year and Rs.1,18,400/- for the 3rd Year |
| S.No. | Name of Equipment (Sanctioned) | Use of Equipment/ Details | Cost (in INR) |
| 1. | 08 Telemetric Rain Gauges Tipping bucket mechanism @Rs.1.75 Lakh per unit , 02 Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) Fixed (including high resolution rain gauge) with different sensors @Rs.10.50 Lakh per unit, 01 Portable Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) @Rs.9 Lakh, 03 Early Warning System (EWS)- Automatic Siren Units (Solar and Wired) @Rs.2.75 Lakh per Unit, 01 Non-Contact Discharge Monitoring Station-Radar Water Level Sensor @Rs.19 Lakh per Unit, 01 Satellite Data/ Hydrological data @Rs.7.50 Lakh per Unit, 01 GNSS Systems Survey-grade GNSS @Rs.25 Lakh per Unit, 01 HP-Desktop Workstation Z8 Tower G5 @Rs.25 Lakh per Unit, 02 HP Mobile Workstation ZBOOK @Rs.1.50 Lakh per Unit, 03 HP Elite One 870G9 68.6 cm all-in-one Desktop PC @Rs.1.60 Lakh per Unit, 03 Tablets @Rs.1.20 Lakh per Unit, 01 Digital Camera @Rs.2.50 Lakh per Unit, 02 Hard Disks 2 TB @Rs.0.10 Lakh per Unit, 02 Printer @Rs.0.20 Lakh per Unit). | 85,00,000/- |
