PARLIAMENT QUESTION: DOPPLER RADAR COVERAGE IN LAHAUL AND SPITI AND KINNAUR

Ministry of Earth Sciences

PARLIAMENT QUESTION: DOPPLER RADAR COVERAGE IN LAHAUL AND SPITI AND KINNAUR प्रव तथ: 30 JUL 2026 2:21PM by PIB Delhi Despite sustained efforts by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), in coordination with the State Government and other Central Government agencies, no suitable site has been identified in the Lahaul and Spiti Valley for the installation of an X-Band DWR due to severe beam blockage, which would significantly hamper effective weather surveillance. Following the expiry of the project timeline, the proposed DWR for the site was not established at that location, and the same DWR was subsequently deployed at another suitable site in the country. Currently, the State has three operational X-Band Doppler Weather Radars located at Kufri, Jot, and Murari Devi.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has established a network comprising 24 Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), 4 Agro-Automatic Weather Stations (Agro- AWSs), and 66 Automatic Rain Gauge Stations (ARGs) in Himachal Pradesh to support weather monitoring and observational activities. In addition, the State is covered by 135 rain gauges under the district-wise and block-wise rainfall monitoring schemes to support rainfall monitoring. At present, 10 AWSs and ARGs are operational in the districts of Lahaul & Spiti and Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh. The details of AWSs & ARGs installed in the districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur are given in the table

below:

S. Station Name District Latitude Longitude Elevation Type of No. (ºN) (ºE) (m) Station 1 Reckon Kinnaur 31.5386 78.2767 2304 AWS 2 Keylong Lahaul & Spiti 32.5719 77.0353 3119 AWS 3 Kukumsher Lahaul & Spiti 32.7003 76.6885 2627 AWS 4 Tabo Lahaul & Spiti 32.0915 78.3851 3262 AWS 5 Kalpa Kinnaur 31.54 78.25 2885 ARG 6 Leo Kinnaur 31.88 78.13 4988 ARG7 Moorang Kinnaur 31.6 78.4412 2291 ARG 8 Pooh Kinnaur 31.7608 78.5829 2745 ARG 9 Sangla Kinnaur 31.43 78.25 2563 ARG 10 Sumdho Lahaul & Spiti 32.0695 76.5988 1096 ARG The Government, through the India Meteorological Department (IMD), under the Ministry, has undertaken several measures to strengthen the weather monitoring network and forecasting systems in response to the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events across the country, including remote and hilly regions, based on operational requirements, technical feasibility, and resource availability. Further, the Government has adopted advanced, state-of-the-art techniques, including high- performance computing (HPC) facilities, to support high-resolution numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, observational systems, and artificial intelligence-enabled forecasting tools, thereby improving the accuracy of weather monitoring and forecasting and associated extreme weather events. Currently, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has a weather observation network comprising manual observatories, AWSs, ARGs, Agro-AWSs, DWRs, upper-air observatories, and satellites to monitor weather and support NWP models for weather forecasting and extreme weather events across the country, particularly in vulnerable and remote areas.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. ***** NKR/JKP (रलीज़ आईडी: 2291636) आगंतुक पटल : 549 इस वज्ञ को इन भाषाओ ंम पढ़: Urdu , ही