Frequent Landslides In Uttarakhand: What's Making Our Hills Unstable?

The landslide index, which ranks districts from 17 states and two Union territories for their vulnerability to landslides based on major socioeconomic indicators, consists of data from close to 80,000 landslides across India over the past 24 years. Since its publication in February this year, the findings have, albeit morbidly, proved accurate as Uttarakhand reported more than 100 deaths and missing persons in disasters, mainly landslides, over the past three months of the peak monsoon season.

It is now apparent that the issue of recurring landslides in Uttarakhand is an amalgam of various factors: ecologically insensitive infrastructure, a relentlessly growing tourism industry, legal and political inefficacy, and a harrowing dearth of solutions. To understand this problem fully, peeling off each of these layers is key.

Gaurikund & Joshimath

The biggest landslide this season struck Gaurikund, a de facto base camp for the pilgrims heading to Kedarnath, on the night of August 3. It destroyed two shops and a dhaba along the highway, leaving 10 dead and another 13 were reported missing. The incident triggered a scientific assessment of the area and experts said unregulated construction in an ecologically fragile zone worsened the damage.

Gaurikund is built on one of the steepest gradient regions in the entire Himalayan region, receiving more rainfall than any other mountainous region in Uttarakhand.

Senior geologist and former director of the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC) Prof. MPS Bisht says the primary reasons for the high volatility of landslides in hilly terrains are, if not man-made, surely man-induced.

“In the Himalayan terrain, most of the nullahs or channels along the valley side of the slopes, are either developed over the weak zone or the fractured rock or where there are some tectonic alignments. At these places, the rocks are highly crushed and fragile, due to which such spots see regular rockfall. Therefore, scientifically, it is always advised to be very careful regarding construction of any shelter, hotels, buildings or even makeshift shops like the ones that have been hit by the recent landslide in (Gaurikund),” Prof. Bisht told The Times of India.

These observations make one ask, 'Why and how were such structures allowed in the first place?’ Although the question is valid, it is also reductive.

In Joshimath, the widespread land subsidence created cracks as wide as a foot, leading some experts to fear that other hill towns in Uttarakhand too may face a similar fate. In January, when the cracks appeared in hundreds of buildings, many families had to vacate their homes and move into temporary shelters. This reignited a conversation on a report buried under the debris long ago.

In 1976, the Centre formed an 18-member committee under the leadership of MC Mishra, the then collector of Garhwal, to find out why Joshimath was sinking. Its report concluded that the ground beneath Joshimath is a deposit of sand and stone, the remnants of an ancient landslide. The town is not built on the actual “main rock” of the mountain. The report pointed out that undercutting by the currents of the Alaknanda makes the area even more prone to disasters.

The recommendations of the report were never implemented.

Joshimath, too, has witnessed rampant construction and unplanned urbanisation. An example of this is the 520 MW NTPC Tapovan Vishnugad Hydro Power plant. The construction of the project on Dhauliganga river began in 2006 and it was set to complete in 2013. However, it is still “under construction”. The project required a tunnel to be dug through a mountain underneath Joshimath.

Pilgrimage & Tourism

The burgeoning tourism industry of Uttarakhand, highlighted by the Char Dham Yatra to Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, sees lakhs of visitors making their way in and out of the state virtually all through the year. Until September, an estimated 41 lakh pilgrims had completed the Yatra and another 10-15 lakh were expected by the end of the season (likely around mid-November), say officials. During the peak season in May, the government had to close online registrations briefly in a bid to manage the crowd as nearly 60,000 people were visiting the Char Dham daily.

Authorities estimate a staggering 7 crore pilgrims and tourists will have visited Uttarakhand by the end of this year. The actual arrivals may be even higher.

A rapidly growing middle-class, having more resources and exposure than ever before, has resulted in the exponential growth in the pilgrimage and tourism sector. While this has created economic opportunities in some of the remotest places, it has also forced towns like Gaurikund to handle visitors more than their capacity.

For daily wagers, shopkeepers, transport service providers and hotel owners, the rising tourism sector offers an opportunity too promising to ignore. That is why the shops that were washed away in Gaurikund in August will again crop up.

Infra projects

Rampant construction for large infrastructure projects in the fragile hills are perhaps the biggest reason behind the recurring disasters. Side-stepping warnings from geologists and decades of scientific confirmation that Uttarakhand’s mountains are not suitable for large-scale infrastructure, the government continues to actively widen roads and push for massive projects like hydropower plants and tunnels in these areas.

In late August, the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway, a Rs 12,000-crore project that had sparked the ire of local residents and ecologists, was badly damaged by subsidence and landslides at several points in Chamoli district. During and after the rainfall season, landslide-prone zones are often marked on the highways along the Alaknanda river and visitors are advised to be cautious.

A landslide on the highways causes a traffic jam which can last for days, leading to shortage of essential commodities in far-flung areas. Besides, the shooting rocks, some of which are car-sized boulders, are a nightmare for those travelling on the battered hillside with no place to escape.

Indifference?

In August, a group of pilgrims from Gujarat was killed along with the driver when a landslide hit their vehicle in Rudraprayag district. They were going to Kedarnath as part of the Char Dham Yatra.

The striking ineptitude of authorities and policy makers despite growing statistical evidence of the dire situation makes it clear that Uttarakhand is shooting itself in the foot. From 32 landslide-related incidents in 2015 to 1,679 such incidents so far this year, according to the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, never before has there been such a spike recorded before in that period. While the means to track landslides have improved, there is no escaping the fact that our exploitation of the mountains has come back to bite us.

The Dehradun-based Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology has assessed 51 percent area of Uttarakhand is located in “high” and “very high” landslide-susceptible zones and the state Public Works Department has confirmed 333 landslide-prone areas as “danger zones” in the state.

The New Buzzword

After years of neglect, Uttarakhand finally seems to be paying attention to finding ways to align itself with nature. It seems the figurative dark clouds that hung over the state are finally allowing streams of light to shine through them.

 

The state is set to begin a fresh round of assessment in 15 hill towns to understand their carrying capacity, which is the maximum population size an ecosystem can sustain. Popular tourism hotspots like Mussoorie and Nainital are among the 15 towns. Others include Uttarkashi, Tehi, Pauri, Lansdowne, Karanprayag, Gopeshwar, Almora, Pithoragarh, Bhowali, Ranikhet, Kapkot, Champawat and Dharchula.

Sceptics frown at the futility of the exercise, saying the state government lacks the wherewithal to decongest the towns having population size beyond their carrying capacity. Nonetheless, a start has been made and it is hoped that Uttarakhand will learn from its past instead of repeating its mistakes.

There is no point in building infrastructure that cannot be sustained. There is no point in pushing the cities and towns in hills to the brink. There is no point in promising mindless development at the cost of human lives. It’s time governments formulate policies based on sound research and verified data before it’s too late.

(Anoop Nautiyal is the founder of Social Development for Communities Foundation,a Dehradun-based not-for-profit organisation. Views expressed are personal)