Forestry practices can play a vital role in landslide disaster management especially in view of the landslides in the Himalayan regions. The officiating director of the Forest Research Institute, Jayshree Ardey said this after inaugurating a national level training programme on forestry in landslide risk management which began at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun on Monday.
The training programme being organised jointly by the National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi and the FRI is being attended by forest officers and scientists from across the country.
According to the institute officials, the basic purpose of the training programme is to make the officials of forest departments of landslide prone regions and scientists from Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Geological Survey of India, Public Works Department and other bodies aware of the extent of damage caused by landslide disasters in India, the reasons for occurrence of landslides, the steps that can be taken to prevent or minimise the losses due to landslides by use of various methods of mitigation and by developing a strong network between other departments of the government and Joint Forest Management communities so that massive disasters could be mitigated in the mountain regions of India.
To inform the participants on the various issues lectures by faculties from institutes like Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, IIT Kanpur, Indian Meteorological Department of Uttarakhand and different forest departments will be organised during the training programme. The training programme is being organised by FRI Silviculture division head Dr RK Aima and research officer VK Dhawan while senior faculty from NIDM, Dr Suryaprakash is coordinating the training course.