ISRO's contributions to disaster risk reduction go beyond launch vehicles and communication satellites. Illustrate with reference to recent studies on Himalayan hazards.

India's space programme is increasingly a disaster-risk-reduction (DRR) instrument: through remote sensing, hazard forensics and baseline mapping, ISRO now shapes preparedness in the fragile Himalaya, as its recent work on cryospheric hazards demonstrates.

Hazard forensics: reconstructing events

• ISRO scientists reconstructed the 5 August 2025 Dharali flash flood (Uttarkashi) using high-resolution digital elevation models, multi-temporal imagery and video records, tracing ridge-to-valley hazard propagation [1].
• The study attributed it to collapse of an exposed ice patch in the nivation zone of the Srikanta Glacier, ruling out extreme rainfall — light to moderate rain preceded the event [1].
• This identified a new hazard class — cryo-hydrological hazards under deglaciation — showing small ice instabilities can rival large glacial lakes in risk [1].

Baseline mapping and monitoring

• Satellite time-series revealed significant expansion of Himalayan glacial lakes since the 1980s, the evidentiary base for national GLOF policy [5].
• ISRO has mapped over 2,000 glaciers and thousands of glacial lakes in the Ladakh region for disaster-management use [5].
• Under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) — a NAPCC mission — space-based data feeds continuous ecosystem-health assessment [3].

Early warning and operational support

• The National GLOF Risk Mitigation Programme (Arunachal, Himachal, Sikkim, Uttarakhand; ₹150 crore) relies on satellite-identified 189 high-risk lakes for automated monitoring and lake-lowering works [2].
• NRSC/Bhuvan platforms supply near-real-time flood and hazard imagery during the response phase [4].
• The Dharali study's key recommendation — pre-event detection of exposed ice patches — offers an early-warning indicator where none existed [1].

ISRO has thus moved from launcher and transponder provider to the scientific backbone of India's DRR architecture. The way forward lies in institutionalising satellite-derived cryo-hazard indicators within NDMA and State authorities, embedding them in land-use regulation in hill districts. This would align India's Himalayan preparedness with the Sendai Framework's emphasis on multi-hazard early warning.