By Vivek Tripathi

Varanasi, Feb 25 (IANS): 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.

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 will be placed near the dam or glacier and its receiver will be at the relief centre. The range of the alarm is 500 meter. We are working on increasing the range of the sensor."

"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."

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.