‘Landslips in Shimla in August due to poor drainage, urbanisation’
CHANDIGARH: Unplanned urbanisation, unorganised drainage systems, burdened hill slopes leading to landslides, oversaturation of sub-soil strata and heavy rains during the monsoon were responsible for the disaster that struck Shimla during the monsoon furry in August this year.
The hill state witnessed unprecedented rains in two spells — in July and in August — which led to cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods across the state. It damaged property worth crores of rupees and several people lost their lives.
An eight-member committee of the Himachal Pradesh Council for Science, Technology and Environment (HIMCOSTE), which studied 16 locations in Shimla, gave a 33-page report, which said, “Geographically, Shimla is situated over a dislocated block formed by the tectonic dislocation of older rocks, overridden by the younger formations along the jutogh thrust….Most of the events that took place during the current monsoon season in Shimla may be due to the thick debris cover as observed in most of the cases which resulted in slope failure due to oversaturation of the sub surface material supporting these slopes.’’
“Over the period of time, the expansion of Shimla has also resulted in the development of unplanned drainage systems and their open disposal on the slopes further contributing to making them unstable,’’ it adds. The report also pointed out the uprooting of deodar trees.
“The uprooting of the deodar trees from vertical slopes during heavy precipitation has also resulted in the failure of the slopes supporting thick soil cover or debris cover leading to debris flow. A large number of trees have been uprooted during the heavy precipitation, may be due to their decreasing binding strength.