MALAPPURAM: Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology (Hume Centre), a non-profit organisation based in Kalpetta, Wayanad, which had alerted the authorities about possible landslides in the Mundakkai area, has decided to extend their operations to more districts in the state. The centre, which developed a parallel system to monitor weather conditions and predict weather changes in Wayanad, will soon start monitoring the weather conditions in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram districts to combat the increasing frequency of natural disasters in Kerala.
Hume Centre has been researching climate change and weather conditions in Wayanad since 2020.
Its monitoring system provides farmers and local people with early warnings about extreme weather conditions like heavy rain and heatwaves. The centre provides critical predictions like the possibilities of landslides and floods only to government authorities, as they are the ones authorised to issue alerts to the public.
The centre’s monitoring system aims to empower people to make informed decisions to protect themselves from the adverse impacts of climate change. “We installed 150 rain gauges to measure daily rainfall in the district and around 70 thermometers to gauge temperature in various areas in the district.
A network of people take measurements of these rain gauges and thermometers every morning. After analysing the data, we send it through our WhatsApp group to these farmers and others daily,” said founding director of the centre, Vishnu Das. “Farmers use these weather updates to make decisions about their cultivation practices. We provide them with weekly predictions as well,” he said.
Hume Centre had also identified high, medium, and low susceptible areas in Wayanad four years ago. “Areas like Mundakkai falls under zones with high susceptibility. Considering the rain patterns, it is possible to predict landslides. In July, Wayanad received heavy rainfall which the highly susceptible areas in the district are not capable of handling,” he said.