Workshop on avalanche safety at SASE

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

A two-day workshop on Zero Avalanche Casualties – The Road Ahead (ZACRA-2017) began at the Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE) here on Thursday. The workshop delve upon the exploitation of emerging technologies to reduce casualties due to avalanches in snow-bound areas.

The focus of the workshop is to interact with all stakeholders to understand their requirements and deliberate upon the magnitude of the problem in the Himalayas, constraints in the existing avalanche mitigation techniques and plausible solutions in the light of latest technological developments.

In his inaugural address, Praveen K Mehta, Director General (Armaments), Defence Research and Development Organisation, emphasised that safety of troops in snow-bound border regions was of utmost importance. He added that since avalanches were natural hazards, it was not possible to ensure 100 per cent accuracy in forecasting their occurrence, yet engineering knowledge of the DRDO and the Army could definitely synergise to minimise the hazard potential.

Giving an overview of the avalanche forecast and engineering solutions being provided to the Army, SASE Director Ashwagosha Ganju said they had been working in inaccessible snow-bound regions and developing cutting-edge technologies to reduce casualties.

Besides DRDO scientists, a large number of officers from the Army’s Northern, Central, Eastern and Training Commands, Border Roads Organisation, paramilitary forces and disaster management authorities are attending the workshop.