Uttarakhand: Landslides, subsidence
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Joshimath- Rishikesh road
As in 2023
Gaurav Talwar, January 15, 2023: The Times of India
DEHRADUN: As many as 309 "fully or partially road-blocking landslides" were identified along the 247-km road between Rishikesh and Joshimath - an average of 1.25 landslides per km - according to a study by a team of Indian and foreign scientists, which was introduced for discussion at European Geosciences Union on January 10.
Besides natural events like rain, road building and widening may have triggered the new landslides, which the report said "are often shallow and small but which nevertheless inflict fatalities, severe damage to infrastructure and traffic disruption". The landslides were mapped in October last year.
Most landslides on 247-km Joshimath road 'fresh': Study
A study that identified 309 landslides along the 247-km road between Rishikesh and Joshimath points out that "this road is strongly affected by landslides which has been previously described and attributed to the region's fragility of slopes, focused rainfall and frequent seismicity". It further stated that most landslides "seemed fresh".
The study by Jurgen Mey, Ravi Kumar Guntu, Alexander Plakias, Igo Silva de Almeida and Wolfgang Schwanghart was published in "Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences", which is a peer-reviewed journal.
The study, which mapped the landslides in October last year, used Google Earth to show that "21.4% of the recorded landslides with road blockages existed before", "17.8% of the landslides were most likely reactivated by excessive rainfall because they could not be identified as road-blocking before the rains" and "a maximum, 60.8%, were not identifiable in the Google Earth imagery”.
In their study report on the area, the authors also commented, "We conducted a systematic survey of landslides and derived a statistical model that aims at quantifying landslide susceptibility along the NH-7 at a high spatial resolution. Our analysis relied on a GPS-based survey of landslides while travelling from Rishikesh to Joshimath shortly after a period of anomalously high rainfall."
The study report also mentioned that road construction was soaring in the Himalayas. In the past five years, 11,000 km of roads were built in the Himalayan states, adding that "the fragility of the landscape as well as slope undercutting and poor construction practices make maintenance of these roads challenging."
The study also cited National Crime Records Bureau data stating "nearly 160 people lost their lives in Uttarakhand in landslide incidents in the last four years."
"The road was widened by removing vegetation and excavating soil and rocks, potentially creating unstable slopes," the report said, adding, "data indicates that 20-40% of the recorded landslides are reactivated slope failures which underscores that slopes are recurrently unstable during periods with intense rainfall.”
It further said that "slope failures along the road have led to fatalities in parts where roads were widened" and cautioned that "damages and fatalities may become even more frequent in the future”.
The expert report added that "reduction of traffic may disrupt the cycle of increasing hazard and exposure in the route and commissioning of the currently ongoing 125km-long broad-gauge railway between Rishikesh and Karnaprayag might be an important step towards this goal.”
Joshimath
Rishikesh, Nainital
January 27, 2023: The Times of India
DEHRADUN: The alarm bells that have been ringing since the crisis in Joshimath are reverberating in several other hill towns across Uttarakhand, with their residents pointing out that they, too, are at risk due to cracks in buildings and roads.
Since the beginning of January, when the crisis in Joshimath escalated — after an aquifer burst in the underconstruction tunnel of the 520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad hydropower project, cracks in the town’s buildings widened and led to panic-stricken residents demanding action — the issue of crumbling buildings has echoed in several other places in the Himalayan state like Karnaprayag, Uttarkashi, Guptkashi, Rishikesh, Nainital and Mussoorie, to name a few.
In Karnaprayag, located around 80km from Joshimath, where work is ongoing for the Centre’s ambitious Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail line and the Char Dham allweather road — both bigticket projects intended to improve connectivity to the Char Dham shrines of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath — locals fear a fate similar to Joshimath’s.
A TOI team visiting the area found several houses had developed large cracks and become uninhabitable, forcing over a dozen families to spend several nights in the municipal council’s ‘rain baseras.’
According to Karnaprayag tehsildar, Surendra Dev, CMP Bend, ITI Colony and Bahuguna Nagar are the worst-affected areas. Over two dozen houses in Bahuguna Nagar, situated on the Badrinath highway, have developed large cracks and the roofs of a few homes are hanging precariously. Locals claim that “rampant construction activity, hill-cutting work for the Char Dham road project and population pressure have complicated an already difficult situation” in this quaint town situated at the confluence of Alaknanda and Pindar rivers.
Gabbar Singh Rawat, 85, a retired army man who has been living in the town since 1975, said, “My house is on the verge of collapse. Columns supporting it have started to bend. The problem worsened after the rains last year. We fear the building may not survive another monsoon.”
In Rishikesh, cracks have developed in at least 85 houses in Atali village. Locals claim it was due to the ongoing railway tunnel work as part of the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail project. Villagers said cracks have appeared in almost all houses and agricultural fields. Tehri Garhwal is another area reporting cracks and land subsidence, especially in and around the tiny hamlet of Chamba. Fearing landslides, residents have been pressing for immediate action. A majority of affected houses are in the Chamba main market area, near a 440-metre-long tunnel, which is being constructed for the Char Dham road project.
Tehri Garhwal’s disaster management officer Brijesh Bhatt said, “Around half a dozen houses that are located near the construction site of the tunnel have reported cracks. The problem first came up last year.”
In Mussoorie’s Landour bazaar, which is more than a century old, a section of the road is “gradually sinking” and has developed cracks that continue to widen, according to residents. There are 12 shops in the affected area with residences above and below them and as many as 500 people currently residing there are at risk, locals say.
Similarly, cracks had appeared in the Lower Mall Road in Nainital in 2018 and a portion of the road had sunk into the Naini lake. Even though patch work on the stretch was carried out, cracks have resurfaced and a segment of the road has again started sinking. According to residents, the steadily increasing traffic load on Mall Road has led to this situation.
More than a dozen families in Jhalimath Basti in Agastyamuni block of Rudraprayag are on the verge of displacement after cracks appeared in their houses. Guptkashi town in Rudraprayag district, the gateway to Kedarnath, has also reported ‘sinking’ in a few areas.
At Almora, the issue of land subsidence has been reported near Vivekananda Parvatiya Agricultural Research Institute. Lakshmi Kant, director of the institute, said, “A building of the institute had to be demolished due to land subsidence on the adjacent road…. The land around here has been sinking for the last 15 years.”
Experts say that massive construction projects undertaken without enough planning, combined with rise in population, tourist load and vehicular pressure are creating a deadly cocktail that is hurting hill towns in Uttarakhand.
Veteran environmentalist Anil Joshi, a Padma Bhushan awardee, who is founder of Dehradun-based Himalayan Environment Studies and Conservation Organisation, said, “Owing to repeated negligence by the authorities concerned, the Joshimath issue does not come as a shock to me. The matter had been flagged in 1976 but no one took note of it. It is time that we focus on our hill towns as a priority and take immediate steps to prevent further deterioration.”
(With inputs from Kautilya Singh and Pankul Sharma in Dehradun, Gaurav Talwar in Karnaprayag, Sonali Mishra in Nainital, Abhyudaya Kotnala in Uttarkashi & Pramod Dalakoti in Almora)
Land subsidence
Places at risk: As in 2023 Jan
Bloomberg, January 17, 2023: The Times of India
A sinking Himalayan town is highlighting the dangers posed to the region and the fragile ecology of the mountain range disturbed by a proliferation of dams, roads and military sites near the border with China.
The risks, flagged for decades by environmentalists and activists, came to the fore recently after land subsidence — gradual sinking due to displacement of underground earth layers — led to cracks in hundreds of homes in the tiny town of Joshimath, located at an altitude of over 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) in the northern hill state of Uttarakhand.
The high seismic risk zone is dotted with several picturesque towns and villages that are gateways to hiking trails, Hindu pilgrimage sites and strategic outposts in India’s lingering border dispute with China. The region is already vulnerable to frequent extreme weather events and landslides. A massive cloudburst in 2013 left more than 5,000 dead in the state.
The risks, flagged for decades by environmentalists and activists, came to the fore recently after land subsidence — gradual sinking due to displacement of underground earth layers — led to cracks in hundreds of homes in the tiny town of Joshimath, located at an altitude of over 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) in the northern hill state of Uttarakhand.
The high seismic risk zone is dotted with several picturesque towns and villages that are gateways to hiking trails, Hindu pilgrimage sites and strategic outposts in India’s lingering border dispute with China. The region is already vulnerable to frequent extreme weather events and landslides. A massive cloudburst in 2013 left more than 5,000 dead in the state.
“The villages and townships in the northern part of Uttarakhand are located along the major active thrust zones within the Himalayas and are very sensitive because of the fragile ecosystem of the region,” said Rajeev Upadhyay, professor of geology at the Kumaun University in Nainital. “Many habitations, which are built on the debris of old landslides, are already under natural stress and man-made constructions are adding further stress to the region.”
Incidents of land sinking in the Joshimath area were reported as early as the 1970s. A rapid subsidence of a maximum of 5.4 centimeters was triggered in Joshimath town in the 12 days up to Jan. 8. Slow subsidence of a maximum of 9 centimeters (3.5 inches) was recorded in the seven months leading to November last year, according to a statement and satellite images released by the National Remote Sensing Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
“If you do a lot of excessive mechanical activities in the region, the land will be prone to slide,” said Upadhyay. “The whole area is vulnerable to subsidence.”
Here are some places in Uttarakhand that could be at risk:
Joshimath: The site of the current disaster is a major military and administrative hub. Millions of devotees cross this garrison town each year to reach Badrinath, a holy town for Hindus. The state-run NTPC Ltd. is working on a hydroelectric power project nearby. India’s top court will hear a petition from a local religious leader next week seeking to halt construction of the power project blaming it for the damage.
NTPC, India’s biggest power producer, has denied its construction activities led to land subsidence.
YEAR-WISE
2007-11
See graphic, 'Uttarakhand: Landslides,year-wise: 2007-11'
See also
Uttarakhand: environment, ecology
Uttarakhand: Landslides, subsidence
