Geological assessment of Amarnath cloudburst done, report in final stages: Govt

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 27

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has carried out a preliminary assessment of the recent incidents of cloudburst in and around the holy cave shrine of Amarnath that occurred on July 18 and 19, 2022, and the report finalisation is in progress, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday. 

The government said during the present field season of 2022-23, the GSI has taken up landslide susceptibility mapping project of both- the approach tracks of Amarnath holy cave and the landslide investigations- with focus on Chardham yatra route covering road stretches from Rishikesh to Badrinath Dham, and from Rudraprayag to Kedarnath. 

The government said in 2013, the GSI had carried out a reconnaissance geotechnical study of landslide-prone area along the Amarnath yatra routes – Pahalgam-Chandanwari-Amarnath cave and the Amarnath cave and Baltal routes and the report was submitted to the authorities of Amarnath Shrine Board. 

Answering a question in Lok Sabha with respect to the number of landslides in the country over the past years, the Minister of State

Independent Charge for the Ministry of Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh said 3,782 major landslides had occurred in the country between 2015 and 2022 in different states and impacted lives and infrastructure. 

The government said the maximum number of landslides (2,239) happened in Kerala followed by 196 in Tamil Nadu, 194 in Karnataka, 184 in Jammu and Kashmir and 101 in Himachal Pradesh. 

The government said unprecedented rain was the top trigger for the landslides.

“From the post-disaster investigation of the landslides in the country, it has been revealed that a major trigger of landslides is unprecedented high rain. The other important geo-factors such as terrain character, slope forming material, geomorphology, land use, land cover in different trains, are the factors for the initiation of landslides. The government said the anthropogenic causes such as unprotected slope cuts, blocking of drainages have also been reported in many landslides.”

Importantly, the GSI has carried out the national landslide susceptibility mapping since 2014 and prepared mapping of the total area of 4.3 lakh  square kilometre in different landslide-prone states and UTs.