32% area of state falls under ‘very high damage risk zone’

Tribune News Service

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, December 23

About 32 per cent of the total 55,673 sq km geographical area of Himachal Pradesh is earthquake prone. Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Ashwini Kumar Choubey, while presenting the data in Parliament today, said that around 32 per cent of the state falls under the “very high damage risk zone” (Zone V) and the remaining falls in the “high damage risk zone” (Zone IV) of earthquakes on the seismic map of India. Under the Zone V, the risk of landslides and earthquakes was higher.

Seismic map

• Chamba, Kullu, Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Mandi and Bilaspur districts fall in Zone V
• Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba and Kullu districts fall in Zone IV
• State reported 163 landslides during monsoon this year

According to a seismic map, a region is divided into five zones depending upon the vulnerability to natural disasters. “Higher hills comprising the districts of Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti, Chamba and Kullu are particularly vulnerable to avalanches, as reported by the Himachal Government,” Choubey said.

Lahual and Spiti, Kinnaur, Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur lie in the “high damage risk zone” (Zone IV). The minister said for providing remedial measures for landslides, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) conducted site-specific investigations regularly.

The action-taken report tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources stated that the GSI had not conducted studies on the estimated loss of glaciers between 1950 and 2020 and also not projected any estimate of loss by 2100 in the Himalayan region.”

“In the light of incidents of landslide and glacial lake outburst, it has recommended that the government should frame regulations, especially in areas that are prone to natural disasters,” the report said.

The report highlighted that Himachal was vulnerable to natural disasters but the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) lacked equipment like earth movers, heavy drilling and JCB machines.

The report also stated that there was no dedicated aircraft service available to airlift NDRF personnel. “The NDRF is also not equipped with modern muck cleaning equipment to deal with emergent situations such as the one that arose in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand in 2021,” it said.

Himachal reported 163 landslides during the monsoon this year. The government had in September announced that the IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Mandi, NIT-Hamirpur and Central University would carry out detailed studies to find out reasons behind the landslides.

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