British Geological Survey (BGS) as part of a multi-institutional international consortium is engaged in executing a societal project called LANDSLIP (initially known as MIRRORS) in South Asia. LANDSLIP stands for Landslide Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment, Preparedness and Early Warning in South Asia: Integrating Meteorology, Landscape and Society. LANDSLIP project has nine international collaborators – five from UK, three from India including GSI and one from Italy. The Principal and Co-Principal Investigators are Prof. (Dr.) Bruce D. Malamud, Kings College, London (KCL) and Dr. Helen J. Reeves, Science Director, BGS. Apart from BGS and KCL the identified Co-Investigators are Geological Survey of India (GSI), Amrita University, Kerala, and, Practical Action-India - an NGO from India.
The planning of this international collaborative project initiated nearly 9-10 months back. In response to a request from Prof. John Ludden, Executive Director, BGS, the then Director
General, GSI in December 2015 expressed GSI’s keen interest in collaborating in such project of high societal relevance with BGS and identified GHRM Cell, CHQ, Kolkata to pursue this matter as the nodal division of GSI. Between January 2016 and June 2016, LANDSLIP proposal was prepared jointly by all the nine partners of LANDSLIP and was submitted to the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK for funding.
LANDSLIP proposal was critically reviewed/ evaluated by the international experts of NERC and the project got its final approval from NERC on 10.06.2016 with a proposed tentative start date w.e.f November 01, 2016.
To pursue the collaboration with Indian partners, Dr. Helen J. Reeves, Science Director, British Geological Survey (BGS), UK and Prof. (Dr.) Bruce D. Malamud, Kings College, UK, London (KCL), the two Principal Investigators of LANDSLIP visited GSI HQ, Kolkata on 22.08.2016 and also the Ministry of Mines, New Delhi on 23.08.2016 to discuss the proposed scientific collaboration with GSI on this multi-consortium based UK-funded landslide project in South Asia (LANDSLIP). During their visit to GSI/ MoM, they had detailed meeting with Shri Balvinder Kumar, Secretary, Mines, Government of India and Shri M. Raju, Director General, Geological Survey of India (GSI) regarding the LANDSLIP project.