Himachal Pradesh government declares incessant rain as State calamity
- August 19, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Himachal Pradesh government declares incessant rain as State calamity
Subject :Geography
Section: Indian geography
Context:
- Following the heavy loss of life and property caused by incessant rains that triggered landslides and floods, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on August 18 declared Himachal Pradesh a ‘Natural Calamity Affected Area’.
Himachal Pradesh is highly prone to landslide:
- Torrential rains, floods and landslides killed around 330 people, with over 12,000 houses damaged. The State has suffered a loss of over ₹10,000 crore.
- There are 17,120 landslide-prone sites in Himachal and 675 of these are near critical infrastructure and habitations.
- The maximum of such prioritized landslide-prone sites are in Chamba (133) followed by Mandi (110), Kangra (102), Lahaul and Spiti (91), Una (63), Kullu (55), Shimla (50), Solan (44), Bilaspur (37), Sirmaur (21) and Kinnaur (15).
Reason behind Himachal landslide:
- Unscientific constructions in the ecologically fragile Himalayas,
- Depleting forest cover,
- Structures near streams blocking the flow of water,
- Extensive cutting of hill slopes for construction and widening of roads,
- Blasting for tunnels, and hydro projects
NDMA report flagged poor planning, lax enforcement in 2019:
- The NDMA’s report, titled National Landslide Risk Management Strategy.
- Flagged Shimla and said that the city was built for a population of around 25,000 but now houses around 3,00,000 people.
- Cities of the Himalayas are growing and beginning to turn into the mountains of garbage.
- There was no specific planning for the hills and the implementation is poor.
- The report said that the authorities resort to “quick-fixes” instead of systemic correction of flaws.
For details on Himachal Floods: https://optimizeias.com/himachal-floods-a-man-made-disaster/