Here's how a pet parrot saved many from the Wayanad landslide

A few people in landslide-hit Wayanad inKerala, have afeathered friend to thank - pet parrot 'Kingini'. During the wee hours of Tuesday, July 30, just before thousands of tons of massive boulders, debris, and soil came crashing down on the hillside villages, Kingini's frantic cries, screeches and wing-flapping from within its cage changed the fate and saved lives.

According to Vinod, Kingini's pet parent, the violent and unusual behaviour of the caged parrot had alerted him right in the nick of time. As a miraculous after-effect, Vinod then rang up his friends and neighbours. Luckily for them, they all sensed something suspicious and fled to safety.

There is considerable anecdotal and scientific evidence indicating that animals and birds can sense some disasters early. The exact mechanisms are not always well understood, but various theories and observations explain how animals might detect impending natural disasters.

"Before the landslide occurred, my parrot was extremely agitated and behaving wildly. In the violent wing-flapping, the bird had also lost some of its feathers in the cage itself. I was wondering whether the parrot was urging me to free it from the cage. So, I rang up a neighbour Jiji and checked. Sensing something dangerous, they fled to safety," Vinod recalls from a facility in Wayanad where he has been staying with hundreds of other evacuees.

Vinod did not stop at alerting one friend, he also rang up another friend. Prashant, a bank employee, was fast asleep, until he received the phone call. Fortunately for Prashant, he too fled in time and escaped the horrors that multiple hillside villages (Chooralmala, Mundakkayi, Punchirimattom) in Wayanad underwent that night.

Satellite imagery captured by ISRO's Radar-imaging satellite (RI-Sat) captured the extent of devastation in the region. At a speed of nearly 28,000kmph, as the spacecraft made a pass over this region on 31st July (a day after the landslide), it offered unprecedented insights into the disaster.

ISRO's data mentions that the region was already landslide-prone and had witnessed landslides in bygone years. It also highlights that the landslide originated from a peak that was at an altitude of 1.550 kmabove sea level. It from such a height that the entire trail of destruction began. From the peak where it originated, the trail of debris flowed down for an 8 km-long stretch, wiping out everything in the way - homes, places of worship, schools, shops, roads, vehicles, etc. ISRO pegs the extent of the landslide at86,000 square metres.

ISRO's RI-Sat is significantly different from conventional satellites that capture optical imagery (photographs). Conventional imaging satellites are comparable to cameras - their imaging capabilities are hindered by clouds, changes in weather, day/night cycles, etc. However, RI-Sat uses Radar signals to map the earth below. It fires radar beams towards the earth and collects the reflection (backscatter) of those beams. As the satellite travels along its designated path, it combines all the reflections that it receives over time. By combining and processing these reflections, these satellites offer high-resolution imagery. This technology is known as Synthetic Aperture Radar.

Depending on the wavelength used, Synthetic aperture radar signals can penetrate through vegetation, snow, and even some types of soil, providing information about underlying structures.