Disaster vulnerability: Safety audit of Himachal proposed
The Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department is planning to get a structural design and safety audit of the entire state along with a geo-technical study done considering its vulnerability to natural disasters.
“We propose to get a structural design and safety audit of the entire state done so that we readily have data on the basis of which we can regulate construction activity in the state,” said TCP Minister Rajesh Dharmani. He added that efforts were on to make funds available for the study from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF).
The need for such a study is being felt even more so as to minimise the loss of human life and property in case of natural disasters like earthquakes, landslides, flashfloods and cloudbursts. Frequent landslides and flashfloods during the monsoon this year as well as last year caused large-scale damage to property and infrastructure like roads and bridges and also resulted in loss of life.
Dharmani said that along with a structural and safety audit, a geo-technical study was also the need of the hour. “Even if a building is a structurally safe but is erected on unstable strata, the entire effort become futile. So, a geo-technical study will indicate the strata type in a particular area,” he added.
Himachal is second only to Arunachal Pradesh in susceptibility to landslides (17,102 recorded landslides), necessitating an early-warning system. “Himachal has 26 per cent high susceptibility to landslides. Out of total 87,230 landslides recorded in India, 17,102 occurred in Himachal. Moreover, around 25 per cent of the total landslides in the country get reactivated,” said Harish Bahuguna, Deputy Director General (Geo-technical and Geo-hazard Management), Geological Survey of India (GSI), at a seminar here.
With rapid urbanisation taking place in popular tourist destinations and corridor development along the national highways, the government is keen to ensure that construction is undertaken considering the geological strata. Various courts, including the National Green Tribunal (NGT), has time and again pulled up the state government and various regulatory authorities like municipal corporations and the TCP Department for their failure to check unregulated construction, which has turned most of the hill towns and cities into concrete jungles.
The mapping of landslides in Himachal, after last year’s monsoon, indicated high risk vulnerability due to the construction of roads and dams, tourism activities and urbanisation in the absence of safeguards to protect the fragile Himalayan geology.
These observations were made in the post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA) study undertaken by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) after torrential rains wreaked havoc in the state last year. The satellite imagery indicated that 5,748 landslides were triggered by unprecedented rains in July and August last year, affecting a 45 sq km area.
