Landslides A Regular Affair In The Fragile Himalayas Of Himachal, Uttarakhand

Alka Sharma is yet to come out of the trauma of August 14 last year, the ‘block Monday’ of her life. She gets jolted in the middle of the night, wakes up to the roar of the landslide after relentless rains and hears the screams of the dead buried under the debris.

Her world is reduced to ruins and a trail of deaths and destruction flashes before her eyes.

In her dreams, she saw Shiv Bhawdi Mandir in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, its façade shattered by nature’s fury. She also sees her sister's laughing face, whom she lost under the debris, her husband’s protective embrace now a distant memory and their three playful daughters—the youngest one just one and half years old, all silenced forever. 

Shimla was shaken by the news about the Shiv Bhawdi Mandir tragedy, just a day before India celebrated its 76th Independence Day. The massive landslide in the town's serene Summerhill locality, next to the historic Viceregal Lodge, wiped out 20 lives, seven of them belonging to one family. All of them were devotees of Lord Shiva and incidentally were at the temple (Shiv Bhawdi mandir) for the last day of the auspicious ‘Shravan’ month to worship Lord Shiva.

Alka’s sister Archana Sharma, 27, her husband Aman Sharma and their three small daughters apart from two family elders, died in the tragedy. “It was a fateful morning at 7:30. I had just sent the kids off to school when I heard about the landslide that had swept the temple downhill, along with everyone performing rituals,” she recalls. The next 10 days were spent counting the bodies recovered by NDPR personnel.

As August 14 approaches again, Alka is slipping back into the trauma while Shimla shivers in fear of the rainy days.

This is how many tragic stories of pain and destruction unfold in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, frequently hit by extreme weather events like landslides, triggered by heavy rains and cloudbursts, which scientists classify as natural disasters.

The recent landslide in Wayanad, which killed over 150 people following torrential rains, serves as a chilling reminder of the disasters occurring in this eco-sensitive zone. Experts from the Dehradun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) have already warned Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir about the serious threat landslides pose to human settlements, infrastructure, dams, and buildings.

“Extreme climatic factors are certainly contributing to the increased frequency of disasters in the Himalayas. However, numerous studies by our scientists indicate that human activities have exacerbated landslide susceptibility in the region. We have urged the state governments to conduct proper studies of areas selected for infrastructure projects, dams, and construction,” says Kalachand Sain, Director of WIHG, Dehradun.

Major landslides in Uttarakhand, which have resulted in significant fatalities and extensive property and infrastructure damage, should serve as a wake-up call for policymakers. However, Anoop Nautiyal, an environmentalist at Dehradun, says that no lessons have been learned by the governments.

“The trajectory of development in Uttarakhand has been faulty and the state, during its two decades of existence, seems to have not done much to cope with environmental threats by promoting sustainable development, especially in high mountains and ecologically fragile districts,” he says.

The landslides are the nature of the mountains but what has led to their frequency was interference with nature and massive constructions to build roads, dams and mega infrastructure projects.

The Kedarnath tragedy in 2013 in which 6,054 people died remains a reminder of major landslides and flash floods caused by “climate change aberration”. Haphazardous construction and encroachment along the glacier outwash and river beds contributed much to the catastrophe.

Lessons from the Kedarnath tragedy seem to have been ignored as the new four-lane project – the Char Dham route – to provide faster connectivity to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri and Gangotri has raised the risks of landslides and also deaths. Just last month, a major landslide at Badrinath disrupted the Char Dham yatra.  

Uttarakhand experienced the worst landslide in 1998 in Pithoragarh – when it was still part of Uttar Pradesh – wiping out the entire village of Malpa in Kali Valley of the Higher Kumaon division of the Himalayas.

“The rockfall had started on August 16 bringing down huge rocks. About 221 people died, including 60 Hindu pilgrims travelling to Tibet on the ‘Kailash Mansarovar Yatra’. Noted Indian dancer Protima Bedi one of the prominent persons who died,” recalls Jaisingh Rawat, a senior journalist.

The landslide generated more than one million cubic meters of rockfall and debris flow that also blocked the Sharda River and continued till August 21. 

Rudraprayag and Tehri Garhwal districts of Uttarakhand have the highest landslide density and landslide risk exposure in the country, according to WIHG experts.

Himachal Pradesh too had witnessed a six-time increase in major landslides in the past two years with 117 occurring in 2022 as compared to 16 in 2020, admits the state’s disaster management authority.

The year 2023 was particularly the worst. More than 500 people died and the state was hit by several disasters including floods and landslides. Shimla—the capital city, remained cut off for weeks due to a massive landslide at Chakki mor on Parwanoo-Shimla's four-lane road.

The state has nearly 17,120 landslide-prone sites of which 675 are near critical infrastructure and habitations.

“The maximum of such sites are in Chamba (133) followed by Mandi (110), Kangra (102), Lahaul and Spiti (91), Una (63), Kullu (55), Shimla (50), Solan (44), Bilaspur (37), Sirmaur (21) and Kinnaur (15)," said a spokesman of the State Disaster Management Authority.

The primary causes of the increase in landslides are unscientific cutting of mountain slopes for four-lane projects, road construction and widening, dumping of debris on hills, and blasting for tunnel and hydro projects.

“The increase in landslides is attributed to unplanned construction in towns like Shimla, which has exceeded the town's carrying capacity despite being in a seismically active zone. Additionally, large road and highway projects and the blockage of natural drainage systems are significant factors,” says S.S. Randhawa, Principal Scientist at the State Council for Science, Technology, and Environment in the Himachal Pradesh government.

Kinnaur district has experienced frequent landslides over the past five years due to major hydropower projects and increased human activity. The district's rugged topography, deep narrow valleys, and steep slopes make it highly susceptible to various types of slope failures, including slumping/creeping, rockfalls, and shooting stones.

Kullu is also a critical area, but Lahaul and Spiti—a highly eco-sensitive region—has recently faced numerous landslides due to road construction activities and climatic factors.