Landslide Mitigation Efforts in India
Present circumstances:
- This week’s deadly and destructive Himachal Pradesh landslides brought much-needed attention to the Himalayan ecology.
In the Himalayan region, the following factors might produce landslides:
- The ecosystem is fundamentally vulnerable as a result of tectonic or neo-tectonic activities linked to a number of subsurface processes like rock deformation, exhumation, and reworking of rocks as well as surface processes like erosion, weathering, and rain/snow precipitation.
- Landslides are brought on by extreme climate-related weather events such flash floods, glacial lake outburst floods, heavy rain and snowfall, debris flows, freezing and thawing, and freezing and thawing.
- Anthropogenic activities: The Himalayan region is stressed by overly eager human development activities.
- Unsustainable development and eco-tourism: Due to the Himalayan state’s popularity as a tourist and religious destination, it receives a lot of visitors. But because the development is being done without consideration for compatibility, the Himalayan region is under stress. As a result, Himalayan’s tolerance for adverse weather has decreased due to environmentally irresponsible construction.
- Governments in the Himalayas have not embraced modern technology; as a result, landslip early warning systems there are still in their infancy. A landslip near Kangra occurred in the first week of this month but was not picked up by the EWS.
It is required to create vulnerability maps based on slope instability:
- The slopes in hilly places are notoriously unstable and prone to landslides. Some of the factors that affect these are slope gradient, hill elevation, rock strength, forest cover, built-up area, and unconsolidated and semi-consolidated sediments.
- Clearing trees from forests and reducing the slopes’ toes are two more factors that increase a region’s susceptibility to landslides.
- The most vulnerable, moderately vulnerable, and least vulnerable areas of the area can be separated into risk zones, and vulnerability maps can be made utilising these traits.
Web-based seismic activity monitoring sensor:
- The Himalayan region is where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide, causing underlying tensions to be released as earthquakes. These earthquakes then cause fractures and damage the litho-structures at the mountain’s surface.
- The likelihood of rock movement along the slope has increased as a result. Knowing the rainfall threshold for a slope should serve as the foundation for systems to prevent landslides.
- Web-based sensors including rain gauges, piezometers, inclinometers, extensometers, and total stations will be beneficial for monitoring.
- Our first goal should be to monitor the most exposed locations with a high population density and a significant built-up area.
To prevent landslides, a thorough plan is necessary:
- It is necessary to create a Council of Himalayan States in order to assess the consequences of surface and subsurface strains.
- It should make an effort to mimic the hazard scenario caused by natural processes, environmental degradation or climate-induced events, and human activities in hill towns or cities.
- The state disaster management agencies will be under the auspices of the centralised council.
- Despite the Himalaya’s diversity along its entire length, the Himalayan states must share and exchange the information from several sets of evaluations:
Conclusion:
- In order to meet these problems, resilience must be built against geo-hazards caused by human activity, environmental degradation, and natural processes.
- Additional steps that must be addressed right away include the development of an integrated Early Warning System (EWS) based on AI/ML algorithms, real-time monitoring, data analysis, and integration, as well as a network of important sensors.
