Lok Sabha Question No. 1820 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-27
Subject: Incidents of Landslide
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Manoj Rajoria, Sumedhanand Saraswati

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOKSABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1820 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 27TH JULY, 20 2

## INCIDENTS OF LANDSLIDE

1820.

DR. MANOJ RAJORIA:

SHRI SUMEDHANAND SARASWATI:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is paying paid any attention to the increasing number of landslide incidents occurring in the country in the recent past, State-wise;
- (b) if so, the reasons thereof;
- (c) the efforts being made by the Government to check the incidents of landslides at religious places like Kedarnath and Amarnath as there should be no loss df life br property; and
- (d) whether the Government has conducted any study regarding th9 wate retention capacity of the soil in different areas of the country and if so, the details the[eOf?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARlGE) MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOG)Y AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a)and (b) As per the inputs from Ministry of Mines, Geological Survey of India (GSI) has collected data of 3782 nos. of major landslides that occurred since 20151to 20t2 in different States/ UT, which have impacted lives and! or infrastructure. These landslide data were collected by GSI through onsite field investigations under the Post-q~astei Studies programme taken up annually by GSI in all the landslide prone States/ I~T a k per GSI's Standard g~~:~e::s~cedure, mainly in response to the requests receiv1ed fro~ the concerned State

The state-wise details of 3782 major landslide incidences, bollec d so far have been tabulated below. For all these landslides, during field valif I ation, GSI collected vital preliminary geoparametric attributes for each of the landsli es, ifcluding studying its impacts, future vulnerability, and indicating the require ents 1 for future detailed geoscientific investigations if any All the above data are also used for updating GSI's ext , sting national landslide inventory.

| Landslides occurred and studied during last seven, ears   | Landslides occurred and studied during last seven, ears   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|
| State Name                                                | Number of land slides                                     |
| ArunanchalPradesh                                         | 48                                                        |
| Assam                                                     | 169 I                                                     |

| Meghalaya            |   48 |
|----------------------|------|
| Mizoram              |   15 |
| Tripura              |   10 |
| Manipur              |   21 |
| Nagaland             |   36 |
| Sikkim               |   31 |
| Himachal Pradesh     |  101 |
| Jammu & Kashmir (UT) |  184 |
| Uttarakhand          |   33 |
| Karnataka            |  194 |
| Tamil Nadu           |  196 |
| Kerala               | 2239 |
| Maharashtra          |   81 |
| West Bengal          |  376 |
| Total                | 3782 |

I Besides the above, GSI has carried out the National Landslide St sceptibility (NLSM) Programme since 2014-15 and prepared 1: 50,000 stale Iandslide susce mapping of the total area of 4.3 lakh sq. km. in different Iandslk e prone Stat (Annexure-I). During NLSM, GSI also collected historical informa ion on 8645 landslides polygons using both remote sensing (RS) and fie14-base~ source data which, 29738 landslides have already been field validated b~ GSI. This huge h national landslide inventory is continuously being updated with the new landsli collected year-wise as part of Post-disaster studies, as mentioneI in the preceding p Mapping ptibility esl UTs 9nos. of , out of istorical Ide data ara.

From the post disaster investigations of the landslides it is refaled that major tr landslides is due to unprecedented high rainfall. The other iII1i ortar t geo-factors terrain character, slo e forming material, eomor holo ,land use II nd-cover in igger of such as p g p gy 1 different terrain etc.are the preparatory factors for initiation of landslides. The [anthropogeniccauses such as unprotected slope cuts, blocking of drainages etc. has all 0 beel reported in many of the slides.

- (c) Yes.GSI carried out various geoscientific studies around reli lious I laces like Kedarnath and Amamath and the details are given below-
- National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping in 1:50,000 scale sh~wing the areas prone . to high, moderate and low susceptibility to landslides fot the ,illy areas (excluding permafrost regions) in J & K, Uttarakhand and Himachal irades~has been completed and shared with stakeholders and available for free downlo1ad fro the Bhukosh portal (www.gsi.gov.in).
- In 2013, GSI carried out reconnaissance geotechnical stu, ies of landslide prone area along the Shri Amamath Yatra routes (Pahalgam - Chand wari t Shri Amamath Cave and Shri Amamath Cave Baltal route) and the report was subml tted to the authorities of Shri AmarnathJi Shrine Board (SASB).
- After 2013 deluge in Uttarakhand, GSI carried out detail d pos disaster geological, geo-technical studies around Rudraprayag (including K~darna h area), Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Bageshwar and Pithoragarh areas and the repo wit suggested remedial measures was submitted to the State Government, Uttarakh din 014.
- Preliminary Geological Assessment of the reported incidenfe of the Cloud burst event and the flood in the downstream stretch in and arounq the holy Shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji in 2021 was done and was submitted to the autt0ritids of Shri AmarnathJi Shrine Board (SASB). I
- GSI has carried out preliminary geological assessment of th;erecert incidence of cloud burst in and around the holy shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji on i 8th ard 19thJuly 2022and report finalization is in progress. I
- During present field season 2022-23, GSI has taken up one 5eso Scale (1:10000) landslide susceptibility mapping project of both the I approach tracks of Shri AmarnathJi Holy Cave and anothermeso scale landslide ijvesti lations with focus on Chardham Yatra route covering road stretches from Ris ikesh to Badrinath Dham, Rudraprayag to Kedamath.
- GSI has not taken up any studies on Water retention capacity of the so 1. (d)

Annexure-I

## Status National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (NLSM) progra mme

| State/UT             |   Target area proposed (km 2) |   Target area completed so far (km 2) | Landslide polygons mapped (Nos)   | Landslides leld validated (Nos.)   |
|----------------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|------------------------------------|
| Assam                |                         24100 |                                 24144 | 527                               | 598                                |
| Meghalaya            |                         22020 |                                 22601 | 1525 I                            | I 791                              |
| Mizoram              |                         21040 |                                 21864 | 4221                              | 2003                               |
| Tripura              |                          1300 |                                  1367 | 57                                | 56                                 |
| Manipur              |                         22500 |                                 23250 | 2405                              | 1548                               |
| Nagaland             |                         16320 |                                 17294 | 2742 I                            | 1554                               |
| Sikkim               |                          4980 |                                  4979 | 3379                              | 651                                |
| Himachal Pradesh     |                         42100 |                                 42108 | 17127                             | 6420                               |
| Jammu & Kashmir (UT) |                         28700 |                                 28890 | 7465                              | 2174                               |
| Ladakh (UT)          |                         40000 |                                 40065 | 838                               | 166                                |
| Uttarakhand          |                         39000 |                                 39009 | 14782                             | 4927                               |
| Kamataka             |                         30620 |                                 31323 | 1248                              | 1278                               |
| Goa                  |                          3540 |                                  3546 | 76                                | 76                                 |
| Tamil Nadu           |                         10080 |                                 10549 | 782                               | 863                                |
| Kerala               |                         19330 |                                 19301 | 1396                              | 3016                               |
| Andhra Pradesh       |                          1150 |                                  1124 | 29                                | 29                                 |
| Maharashtra          |                         28190 |                                 29191 | 1134                              | 1152                               |
| West Bengal          |                          2970 |                                  2980 | 1554                              | 1529                               |
| Arunanchal Pradesh   |                         71210 |                                 71228 | 25172                             | 907                                |
| Total                |                        429150 |                                434813 | 86459                             | 29738                              |

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