60 Years Of Disaster: All Solutions Lead To Dead-End In An Uttarakhand Zone

Down the Badrinath national highway that meanders along the scenic Alaknanda river in Uttarakhand,  locals and tourists tense up when they approach a spot ahead of Srinagar that is designated even on Google Maps as 'Sirobagad Landslide Zone'. Six decades and crores of rupees later, the zone sees frequent landslides and has authorities in a fix.

Located around 16 kilometres from Srinagar, Sirobagad is an active landslide zone where fallen debris leads to road closures almost daily, and often leads to accidents too. It especially poses greater perils in the monsoon season, a time when the Char Dham Yatra is in full swing.

The problem persists since the 1950s and continued even after the road was built from a strategic point of view after the 1962 India-China war. Research done by geologists Dr MPS Bisht and Dr SC Nainwal in 1985-86 examined reasons behind the Sirobagad zone's sensitivity and possible solutions. The four major reasons were identified as follows:

North Almora Thrust

The entire area is called Srinagar thrust, which was earlier called North Almora thrust. In the geological language, a thrust is the place which separates one formation from another, and one formation exerts pressure on the other. The Sirobgad landslide area comes in the share plate of this Srinagar thrust, which means one rock crushes the other. In Sirobgadh, rocks of the entire mountain are like powder, with small grained stones on the entire mountain. The rocks in this entire landslide area are of highly crushed and gauze material, which is why they continuously fall down.

Clay Between Quartzite Stones

There are quartzite rocks in this area and between them is a layer of very smooth clay. This brown clay keeps the quartzite stones firm and binds them together. On the other hand, the clay also possessed the attribute that it starts swelling as soon as it comes in contact with water and starts shrinking as soon as it comes in contact with sunlight. This swelling and shrinking along the slope causes rocks to fall down.

Toh Erosion

During the research, it was found that the Alaknanda river is flowing just below the Sirobagad landslide area. At the lowest part of this landslide area, where the debris of the entire landslide area falls, the Alaknanda river is rapidly eroding from below. In scientific language, this phenomenon is called Toh erosion. Due to the rapid cut off of the Alaknanda river, with its slope being 90 degrees, landslides are occurring rapidly and the rocks are sliding down.

Earthquakes

Small and big earthquakes occur continuously in this entire Himalayan region, making the landslide area more active. Whenever an earthquake occurs, whether it is small or big, it shakes the rocks and makes them more unstable.

What Is The Solution?

According to Dr Bisht, during the 1985-86 research, British geologist J N Hutchinson came to study the Sirobgadh landslide area and concluded that it can never be treated and neither can it be controlled. He also suggested that a road be made from the other side of the hill.

A road was built right on the other side of the landslide area and a bridge was built on Alaknanda about 100 meters from the problematic area, from where the entire traffic will be diverted in the coming days. Hutchinson's suggestions are being implemented after 36 years, crores of rupees in projects and many landslides and accidents later.