Dehradun: Two hill districts Rudraprayag According to the ‘Landslide Atlas’ report prepared by the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Tehri in Uttarakhand has the “highest exposure to landslide risk in the country”.
Rudraprayag District which resides Kedarnath According to the District Emergency Operations Centre, the temple has 32 protracted landslide zones, the highest of which is located on NH-107 leading to the holy city. Similarly, Tehri district has more than two dozen landslide zones, including Totaghati, which have been identified as “very chronic landslide sites”.
Rudraprayag and Tehri districts are ranked first and second respectively out of 147 districts across the country that are prone to landslides. Chamoli, the district housing Joshimath, ranks 19th in the list.
‘Most landslide zones are activated during monsoons’
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer NK Rajwar said on Thursday, “Sirobagh and Narkota landslide zones are the most problematic as they are active almost throughout the year. On the other hand, most landslide zones are active during the monsoon season.”
According to State Emergency Operations Center data, between 2018 and 2021, 253 landslides were reported in Uttarakhand, resulting in 127 deaths.
Regarding the 2013 Kedarnath flash floods, ISRO’s recent report says: “Satellite data reconstructs the chain of events around Kedarnath between June 16-17, 2013 and shows the reactivation of a large, old landslide that damaged a river bank whose resulting in the flooding of Kedarnath city. The twin events not only buried Kedarnath city with debris brought from the terminal and lateral moraines of chorabari and companion glaciers but also changed the course of the Mandakini River from west to east of Kedarnath city.”
The ISRO database covers the landslide prone areas of 17 Indian states and two Union Territories in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.
Rajouri and Pulwama (J&K); Kozhikode, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram (Kerala); And South Sikkim and East Sikkim (Sikkim) are the other high risk districts, according to the landslide susceptibility zonation map. Notably, in a major disaster, on June 29, 2022, at least 79 people were killed in a landslide in Manipur’s Noni district.
The data also shows that “more than 11,000 landslides have been recorded in Uttarakhand in the last two decades”, and the stretch routes with the highest landslide areas include Rishikesh-Rudraprayag-Chamoli-Badrinath, Rudraprayag-Ukhimath-Kedarnath, Chamoli-Ukhimath-Kedarnath. Uttarkashi-Gangotri-Gaumukh and Pithoragarh-Khela-Malpa.
About 0.42 million sq-km or 12.6% of the land area, excluding snow-covered areas, is vulnerable to landslides.
Of this, 0.18 million sq-km falls in the North Eastern Himalayas, including the Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas; North-West Himalayas (Uttrakhand, Himachal and J&K); 0.09 million sq-km in the Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) and 0.01 million sq-km in the Eastern Ghats of Araku area of Andhra Pradesh.
‘Landslide Atlas of India’ is a consolidation of work done by NRSC on landslide disasters under ISRO’s Disaster Management Assistance Programme.
Rudraprayag District which resides Kedarnath According to the District Emergency Operations Centre, the temple has 32 protracted landslide zones, the highest of which is located on NH-107 leading to the holy city. Similarly, Tehri district has more than two dozen landslide zones, including Totaghati, which have been identified as “very chronic landslide sites”.
Rudraprayag and Tehri districts are ranked first and second respectively out of 147 districts across the country that are prone to landslides. Chamoli, the district housing Joshimath, ranks 19th in the list.
‘Most landslide zones are activated during monsoons’
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer NK Rajwar said on Thursday, “Sirobagh and Narkota landslide zones are the most problematic as they are active almost throughout the year. On the other hand, most landslide zones are active during the monsoon season.”
According to State Emergency Operations Center data, between 2018 and 2021, 253 landslides were reported in Uttarakhand, resulting in 127 deaths.
Regarding the 2013 Kedarnath flash floods, ISRO’s recent report says: “Satellite data reconstructs the chain of events around Kedarnath between June 16-17, 2013 and shows the reactivation of a large, old landslide that damaged a river bank whose resulting in the flooding of Kedarnath city. The twin events not only buried Kedarnath city with debris brought from the terminal and lateral moraines of chorabari and companion glaciers but also changed the course of the Mandakini River from west to east of Kedarnath city.”
The ISRO database covers the landslide prone areas of 17 Indian states and two Union Territories in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.
Rajouri and Pulwama (J&K); Kozhikode, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram (Kerala); And South Sikkim and East Sikkim (Sikkim) are the other high risk districts, according to the landslide susceptibility zonation map. Notably, in a major disaster, on June 29, 2022, at least 79 people were killed in a landslide in Manipur’s Noni district.
The data also shows that “more than 11,000 landslides have been recorded in Uttarakhand in the last two decades”, and the stretch routes with the highest landslide areas include Rishikesh-Rudraprayag-Chamoli-Badrinath, Rudraprayag-Ukhimath-Kedarnath, Chamoli-Ukhimath-Kedarnath. Uttarkashi-Gangotri-Gaumukh and Pithoragarh-Khela-Malpa.
About 0.42 million sq-km or 12.6% of the land area, excluding snow-covered areas, is vulnerable to landslides.
Of this, 0.18 million sq-km falls in the North Eastern Himalayas, including the Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas; North-West Himalayas (Uttrakhand, Himachal and J&K); 0.09 million sq-km in the Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) and 0.01 million sq-km in the Eastern Ghats of Araku area of Andhra Pradesh.
‘Landslide Atlas of India’ is a consolidation of work done by NRSC on landslide disasters under ISRO’s Disaster Management Assistance Programme.
