Landslides now a year-round threat in the Hills

Landslides in the hills of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are no longer confined to the rainy season, but now pose a threat all through the year.

Uttarakhand, in the first three months of this year alone, actually recorded as many as 1,000 landslides, which claimed the lives of over 260 people. The extent of damage to homes, roads, public and private property are yet to be accurately assessed.

So, it’s time for the plainsfolk to be careful before heading to the hills on a whim over the weekend or going on the annual pilgrimage.

Indiscriminate felling of trees and hillsides to build and widen roads has taken a heavy toll, with fresh landslide zones emerging on both sides of the Badrinath highway. Rudraprayag and Tehri have become particularly vulnerable, and the very existence of Nainital, the most popular tourist destination in the state, is now under threat.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has compiled a Landslide Atlas of India report, which analyses 147 districts across 17 Indian states. All 13 districts of Uttarakhand find a place in the Atlas, with the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority confirming that over 25 new landslide and subsidence spots were found during this year's monsoons.

Seemingly, the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state are aware of the emerging threat, but are trying to save face. They had pushed very hard for environmental clearance to widen the roads in the hills, arguing that this was required for the Army to move to the border swiftly. Their ‘national security at stake’ argument persuaded the Supreme Court of India to overrule objections raised by a panel of experts and the governments were allowed to have their way.

The clock since then has come full circle.

As many as 57 eminent individuals, including BJP stalwart and former union minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Dr Karan Singh, RSS ideologue K. Govindacharya, Shekhar Pathak and Ramachandra Guha, wrote to the Chief Justice of India, requesting him to reverse the court’s September 2022 judgement approving the construction of a wide road to the Char Dham.

The court is unlikely, say legal experts, to accept it as a writ petition. It would normally expect the government to approach it directly.

The manoeuvring, however, is widely interpreted as a step designed to allow the government to save face. The government would be hoping that the court will serve notice, asking for its opinion, so that the government can gracefully say that it would not stand in the way of a review. It will further claim that its intention was to make the pilgrims’ progress more comfortable and enable the army to move faster in times of conflict.

However, with the Himalayas paying the price and often demanding a price, it would accept the wisdom of the court and the experts.

Significantly, union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has already started blaming engineers, officials and flawed project reports for the plight of the national highways.

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In Uttarakhand, which has 3,594 km of national highways, as many as 203 landslide zones have been identified. Of these, 60 are on the Dehradun–Pithoragarh route.

The Kameda landslide zone near Gauchar on the all-weather road has remained unresolved for the past three years. Landslides on a large portion of the hill here are causing significant damage to the Badrinath Highway.

Umatta, near Karnaprayag, also on the Badrinath Highway, has added to the woes. Last year, debris from a few hillsides landed on the highway. This year landslides have occurred over a much larger stretch on both sides of the bridge and the stream that pass through it.

Uttarkashi, the gateway to Gangotri and Yamunotri, on the banks of the Bhagirathi river, has also become vulnerable. A landslide here puts the entire residential area at risk.

The entire region of the Varunaavat mountain range is highly sensitive and earthquake-prone. In 1991, an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale occurred here. Dense pine forests and rising incidence of forest fires during the summer are adding to the risks. Deforestation and demolition of mountains for construction have weakened the grip of the soil and caused even the strong, rocky mountains to begin collapsing.

According to ISRO data, 12,319 landslides occurred in Uttarakhand between 1988 and 2023. In 2018, there were 216 landslides in the state, while in 2023, this number increased five-fold to 1,100. Landslide incidents also increased nearly four-and-a-half times in 2023, as compared to 2022. Last year, 2,946 landslides were recorded, resulting in 67 deaths.

Nainital, the state’s most popular tourist destination, has witnessed massive landslides in the Baliyanala, China Peak, Mall Road, Kailakhan, Thandi Sadak, and Tiffintop areas.

Residents and experts recall that in 1880, the mountain around Nainital was severely eroded, killing approximately 150 people. At that time, Nainital's population was barely 10,000. The British government of the time, taking action, not only banned new construction, but also prohibited cutting grass, using the area as pastureland or gardening on the Sher Ka Danda hill, and initiated large-scale tree plantations.

Professor B.S. Kotlia, a geologist at Kumaon University, explains that the activation of a fault that runs between Nainital and Naini Lake is contributing to the landslides and subsidence. The pressure of the city's ever-increasing buildings and geological movements could also be contributing factors.

The Uttarakhand government's disaster management department and the World Bank together conducted a study in 2018. Even then, more than 6,300 locations in the tiny state of Uttarakhand were identified as landslide-prone. The report also stated that development projects worth thousands of crores of rupees are being built, cutting down mountains or destroying forests, contributing to the increase in landslide-prone areas, with 25,000 trees allegedly felled across 356 sq. km of forest area to build concrete roads.

The matter even went to the National Green Tribunal (NGT); but by then, the trees had already been felled.

Trees play a significant role in preventing erosion and collapse of the hills. Indiscriminate felling of trees and blasting of the hills are said to be responsible for increasing the risk of earthquakes right up to Delhi and create a water shortage in the Yamuna.

Yet, work is moving apace on another road project connecting the four major pilgrimage sites in the hills — it involves the construction of 15 major bridges, 101 smaller bridges, 3,596 culverts and 12 bypass roads.

A railway project from Rishikesh to Karnaprayag has also been approved, which will not only result in large-scale deforestation and impact wildlife, but will require tunnels and bridges to be cut through the mountains.

This year, the crisis is particularly acute — because the unseasonable rainy ‘season’, one of the worse in recent decades, is expected to continue until December.

Meanwhile, despite the extended timeline at their disposal, our planners and policymakers are not learning anything from the past.