Varanasi students develop glacier flood sensor alarm to avert natural disasters in hill states

To avert natural disasters, especially glacier busts and floods in hill states, the sensor developed by students of Ashoka Institute will be useful

Three students of Ashoka Institute of Technology and Management have developed a glacier flood alarm sensor which will alert the people before any natural disaster. To be priced between Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000, the sensor is rechargeable and on one time charge it works for six months.

Anu Singh, one of the students who developed the alarm, told IANS: "A lot of people lost their lives in the Uttarakhand disaster. We have developed the sensor so that people can be alerted before such disasters."

This alarm of the sensor can be placed near the dam or glacier and its receiver will be at the relief centre. The range of the alarm is 500 meter and work is progressing on increasing the range of the sensor, said Anu Singh.

"It is a rechargeable sensor and on one time charge it works for six months. The total cost of developing one sensor alarm is Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000," she added.

Shyam Chaurasia, incharge of Ashoka Institute Research and Development Cell, said: "This sensor alarm will help in saving thousands of lives. This will alert in case of natural disasters like avalanche, cloudburst, flood etc." It will be useful in hill states like Uttarakhand and Himachal pradesh among others where avalanches are frequent and glacier busts often result in natural disasters.

Senior Scientific Officer of the Regional Science and Technology Centre Mahadev Pandey said that a lot of lives are lost in natural disasters due to lack of forecast. This can be prevented with the help of glacier sensor alarms. If it can given information in advance after increasing the range, it will prove to be a big boon for humanity.