Monitoring of Critical Himalayan Landslides

and Design of Preventive Measures

Kishor Kumar, Pulikanti Subramanya Prasad, Anil Kathait, and Indervir Negi

Abstract
The entire Himalayan road network suffers extensive damage from a large number of
landslides of different shapes and sizes. A large number of landslides on each highway have
occurred repeatedly during every year for many decades, causing extensive risk to life of
commuters, loss of revenue from direct and indirect losses and hardship for the people, thus
influencing the socio-economic conditions of the region. One of the important highways of
the country, which connects the north western Himalayan state of Uttarakhand to rest of the
country, suffers from large numbers of such landslides. Two of the most critical landslides
have been selected as pacesetter examples for investigation, monitoring and prevention.
These two landslides have been monitored using a very simple system consisting of
specially designed grooved steel pedestals, total station and DGPS (Differential Global
Positioning System). The results of monitoring have encouraged utilising the same system
for other Himalayan landslides of a recurring nature instead of investing in heavy-duty,
costly and sophisticated instrumentation. This paper gives a detailed account of two
landslides and the monitoring processes followed in a scheme of remedial measures for
their long-term prevention.

Keywords
Landslides  Instrumentation  Monitoring  Remediation

Introduction natural setting through their unmindful development. The

The Himalaya, the most impressive and fascinating mountain
chain in the world belongs to all human beings because of its
divine connection with the whole of the world. Its peculiar
geo-environmental characteristics, its varied flora and fauna
with high medicinal values, its dynamic geological history,
high mountains, glaciers, holy rivers, and active denudation
processes make it a fragile land mass. The Himalaya region is
often in news because of repeated disastrous events. We often
blame its fragile geo-environmental setup for these repeated
disasters and not the humans who invade onto its sensitive
K. Kumar (*)  P.S. Prasad  A. Kathait  I. Negi
CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi 110025, India
e-mail: kishornhrm@gmail.com; pulikanti@gmail.com;
kathaitanil@gmail.com; inder.ivgeo@gmail.com
construction of roads and highways is one such activity
which can be held responsible for repeated devastation due
to landslides on and off the roads.
All the hilly states in Himalayan region are severely
affected by road construction. On an average every
kilometre of road has at least two landslides and Himalayan
roads extend over 60,000 km. Every rainy season brings a
series of new landslides and also recurrence of old ones,
leaving trails of devastation each time they occur. There is
no warning required in the areas that experience landslides
because they are a regular phenomenon during every rainy
season. However, it is a common practice to react after
the disaster rather than taking a proactive approach to pre-
disaster planning. By following the normally accepted
practice, the country losses many lives and a huge sum of
revenue while only partly restoring the works. As a result,

K. Sassa et al. (eds.), Landslide Science for a Safer Geoenvironment, Vol. 2, 583
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05050-8_90, # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
584
Fig. 1 The Kaliasaur and Patalganga landslides and their location on NH-58
the communications routes, which are the essential life lines
during any disaster, may be blocked during much required
rescue and rehabilitation efforts.
The high intensity cloudbursts that led to the flash floods
on June 15 to June 18, 2013, in many part of the north
western Himalayan region were unprecedented. According
to the official estimates around 5,000 plus people have been
killed and property worth 488 million dollars has been
destroyed. It was observed that older critical landslides
which had been left unattended together with newly
generated landslides, caused great hindrance in the rescue
and rehabilitation process. There are a number of such
landslides on various highways of the country, which need
to be remediated and their behaviour continuously
monitored. In this paper, two of such landslides, the
Kaliasaur and Patalganga landslides (Fig. 1) which are
over five decades old, are discussed to showcase examples
of cost-effective and accurate monitoring for an early
warning of landslides which could be affordable for all the
landslides.
Kaliasaur Landslide
The Kaliasaur slide extends for 100 m along the highway,
353 m up to the active crown and 152 m up to the toe,
covering an area of 50,500 m2. The historical records of
this landslide since 1920 have widely been published
(Bhandari 1987; Kumar et al. 2008; Kimothi et al. 2010;
CRRI 2010; Kumar et al. 2011a, b, 2012, 2013; Negi et al.
2012). Though, landsliding has recurred during every rainy
season, larger magnitude sliding occurred in the years 1969,
1984, 2010 and 2013. In 2010, the slide blocked the highway
intermittently for about 5 months. The loss of at least two
human lives was reported. The extra cost of the use of
K. Kumar et al.
alternate routes by the small and heavy vehicles is estimated
as 16.4 million (approx.) Indian rupees, only for detouring
during the 45 days of blockage, not to mention other
financial losses. There is a lack of records on losses incurred,
however, the records of sliding and road blockage over last
five decades indicate a huge sum of revenue lost, to the tune
of several hundred billion Indian rupees spent on repeated
partial restoration.
The morphological changes on the slope of the slide,
particularly since 1984, indicate that it was retrogressive
until 2008, and thereafter transformed into a progressive
mode. The slope material consists of quartzite, metavolcanic
and slate rocks of moderate to highly fragile nature. The
quartzite rocks are highly crushed in the cliff area and form
gouge material. The extent of fracturing is probably due to an
active tectonic past (CRRI 2010). Topographic expressions of
faults are observed all through the landslide. North Almora
thrust separates the Chandpur phyllites from the Quartzites
(Singh and Goel 1999) located adjacent to this area, while
Kaliasaur fault and many other minor faults are located within
or across the landslide boundary (CRRI 2010). The alterna-
tion of slate and intrusions of metavolcanic rocks with the
jointed quartzite have also played a major role in continuous
sliding. The softer slate and metavolcanic rocks quickly
weather and erode, while jointed quartzite blocks lose support
and subsequently fail. During the dry season, the slide has a
quiet and stable slope because the debris material on the slope
becomes very hard, while during rains it becomes saturated
and flows down, leaving numerous deep rills and gullies on
the slope. These gullies subsequently become deeper and
scoured due to increasing water flow during heavy rain and
on failing form numerous small scars on the slope. This
process was earlier confined within the slide boundary and
crown area, but now all through boundary such gullies and
scars are visible.
Monitoring of Critical Himalayan Landslides and Design of Preventive Measures 585

Monitoring Outcomes Table 1 Pedestals showing significant displacement on the slope

Pedestal Initial Second position/ Third position/
The landslide is still active and causes considerable damage No. position Displacement (m) Displacement (m)
to the highway and risk to commuters. To measure the Kn 2 899.23 897.51/1.72 895.58/1.93
movement of the landslide, 75 specially designed steel Kn 3 902.59 900.86/1.73 899.34/1.52
pedestals have been installed in preselected locations within Kp 11 669.21 667.52/1.69 666.09/1.43
the slide body and adjacent area. Their original position was Kn 13 658.75 657.57/1.18 656.19/1.38
Kn 16 658.67 657.53/1.14 656.58/0.95
recorded using DGPS (Differential Global Positioning
Kn 19 662.52 660.65/1.87 659.17/1.48
System) and TS (Total Station). Subsequent monitoring
Kp 21 819.90 818.12/1.78 816.12/2.00
with DGPS and TS was carried out. It was noticed that the
Kn 23 640.28 638.80/1.48 637.11/1.69
pedestals installed within the slide boundary did not move
Kn 26 656.05 654.44/1.61 653.03/1.41
much except at a few locations. These locations were on the Kn 28 653.45 652.68/0.77 651.71/0.97
loose debris mass, and rest of the pedestals that have shown Kp 29 818.56 816.89/1.67 815.41/1.48
movement were located near and around the crown, Kp 32 705.91 704.17/1.74 702.22/1.95
indicating movement only above the crown (CRRI 2010).
Out of 75 pedestals, only a few have shown a significant
amount of movement (Fig. 2 and Table 1). The maximum Remedial Measure Suggested Before
movement in the landslide recorded was 3.78 m and Reactivation
minimum is 0.73 m (after three sessions of monitoring).
Monitoring results, when matched with field conditions, The historical background of the landslide indicated the
indicated surficial movement from the crown part. These initial triggering factor was intense toe erosion during the
results coincide with the activity of the slide observed rainy season by the river Alaknanda. As a usual practice,
mostly from above the crown area. At that stage sufficient after every landslide incident and damage to the highway,
warning was passed on to take immediate measures before the same restoration work was carried out; instead of
the coming monsoon season. strengthening the downhill side slope the uphill slope was
Unfortunately, the measures could not be taken and the cut. This practice was repeated almost every time the road
slide was reactivated in the month of July-September 2010, was damaged. At present, the cutting of the toe by the river
resulting in damage to the road and intermittently sliding for has become irrelevant because the height of the road has
5 months, including the loss of several lives. increased many times more than during its initial
construction. The crown part is now the main component
which slides every time the heavy rain falls. And, every time
huge debris slides are generated and damage the road.
Therefore, the first priority to prevent the slide is by
stabilizing the unstable slope. But due to the exorbitant
cost, as well as difficulty in implementing the measures,
measures have been proposed that, instead of preventing
slides, protect the road from damage to avoid repeated
cutting of the uphill slope. This could have resulted in
stabilizing the entire slope in subsequent times. In view of
that, the following measures have been suggested, shown in
Fig. 3 (CRRI 2010):
1. To cover the slope at the crest part with a steel rope net of
aperture size 300 mm  300 mm to prevent material
from sliding, rolling or falling on the slope downhill.
2. Rockfall barriers/gabion walls have been proposed to
collect the boulders coming through the steel rope net.
3. In addition, it was proposed to compact the slide debris on
the slope in-situ along with steeped gabion walls of
2 m/1.5 m/1 m with an option of drainage.
Fig. 2 Pedestals showing significant displacement after monitoring 4. A similar gabion structure was to be applied for the toe to
result the road level.
586
Fig. 3 A scheme of remedial measures for stabilisation of slope
Patalganga Landslide
Patalganga is a moderate landslide, located at 460.2 km on
NH-58, on the right bank of Patalganga River. It extended
for about 390 m in length and 320 m in width covering an
area of 79,370 m2. In the year 2005 it advanced to 457 m in
length, 338 m in width and in area 109,121 m2 (CRRI 2012).
The slope material of the landslide area is composed of
recent sediments, largely assorted moraine with a steep
slope angle (80 –90 ). The flash flood of July 1970 in
Patalganga and subsequently in the Alaknanda River,
which caused loss of life and property of an unprecedented
magnitude, was a rare catastrophe for the Himalayan region
(Bhandari 2003). It was during this catastrophic event this
slide was developed at a location of a small hamlet, which
was completely washed away. Since then the landslide has
occurred repeatedly during every monsoon. At the toe of the
slide there is a narrow gorge over which a bridge connects
the NH-58. The slide has the potential to block the narrow
gorge and form a artificial dam which on breaching may
wash away the bridge and recreate the historical flash flood
conditions of 1970. The landslide blocked the River
Alaknanda, forming a 45 m high dam within a very short
span of time. On breaching, the dam created havoc,
destroying everything in its path for 100 km downstream
of Alaknanda. In view of this, the slide was assigned for
K. Kumar et al.
monitoring. The recurrence, although of low magnitude,
reminded the public about the 1970 tragedy when
Patalganga was blocked at a narrow constriction and became
the cause of the fateful event of 1970.
Monitoring Outcomes
In the year 2008, 65 specially designed steel pedestals were
installed in the landslide body and their original position was
fixed using DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System).
The pedestals were monitored before and after the monsoon
seasons to find out the degree of displacement. The slide was
monitored three times. The movement of the pedestals is
attributed to the movement of the blocks (formed by
dilatational and shear fractures in the main body) resting
on the slip surfaces on which pedestals were installed.
Monitoring of Patalganga landslide shows that it has a
shallow kind of movement. Current monitoring of the slide
reveals that the movement ranges from 0.31 to 8.68 m (Fig. 4
and Table 2). Movement of lower magnitude has been
observed in the upper parts of the landslide area, whereas
higher magnitude movement has been recorded in the lower
parts of landslide area.
It shows that erosion occurs in the landslide toe parts
during rainy season. Most of the movement of the pedestals
trends towards SW and WNW directions.
Monitoring of Critical Himalayan Landslides and Design of Preventive Measures 587

Fig. 5 Remedial measures for Patalganga landslide

Conclusion
Monitoring of landslides for early warning is a challenging
area, and costly in terms of involving high precision
Fig. 4 Pedestals showing significant displacement after monitoring technology and skill. However, this paper highlights cost-
result
effective ways of monitoring the critical landslides which
generally become reactivated during rains. Though, early
Table 2 Pesdestals showing significant movement on the slope warning may not be given in hours, the continuous
Pedestal Initial Second position/ Third position/ monitoring results are useful in predicting the magnitude
No. position Displacement (m) Displacement (m) of sliding during the rains, as it has been for the described
P13 1,397.54 1,393.56/3.98 1,389.99/3.58 landslides.
P14 1,401.94 1,397.01/4.94 1,394.07/2.94
P15 1,383.37 1,380.86/2.51 1,377.77/3.09
P18 1,385.95 1,382.55/3.40 1,379.80/2.75
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