Delays in dissemination of avalanche warnings: Comptroller and Auditor General
Ajay Banerjee
New Delhi, April 7
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its report named “Union Government (defence systems) Army and Ordnance factories: 2023”, has pointed out lack of new technology for predicting snow avalanches and pulled up the Snow Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE).
It clarified that it was using the name of erstwhile SASE despite it having been merged with the Defence Terrain Research Laboratory (DTRL) to form Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment headquartered at Chandigarh.
The CAG said the SASE was aware of the need to increase manual observatories (MOs) and automatic weather stations (AWSs). However, a concrete plan of action for the purpose was yet to finalised. There was a system in place to calibrate the sensors at the MOs and AWSs. Non-availability of trained personnel for collecting data at observatories was a key contributing factor in the poor quality of data being collected.
Pointing out delays in the dissemination of avalanche warnings, the report said there was no integrated communication system between the SASE and the Army in this regard. The SASE, it said, took up avalanche threat mitigation tools and some prototypes were developed and tested successfully. However, these were not extended to the users — the Army, ITBP, BRO and the NDRF — for adoption, leading to continued dependence on the less effective techniques.
The CAG recommended that the format and periodicity of SASE’s forecasting may be reviewed to make the system more effective and asked for an integrated system between the SASE and users. Also, the SASE has been asked to add more observatories to improve forecast accuracy.
