Himalayan Landslides: NDMA Flagged Poor Planning In Hills, Lax Enforcement Of Norms In 2019

As experts and policymakers look for causes of the unprecedented deaths and destruction from rain-induced landslides in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, it has emerged that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) flagged poor planning in hill states, population pressure, and lack of enforcement of norms in the hill states in a report in 2019. 

The report also noted that cities like Shimla have long crossed the population limits they were built for. Highlighting poor infrastructure and civic services in the hilly areas, the NDMA report said "cities of the Himalayas are growing and beginning to turn into the mountains of garbage". 

Since Sunday, at least 74 people have died in Himachal Pradesh in rain-related incidents such as landslides and cloudbursts. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has described the death and destruction as "unprecedented" and has also flagged improper construction and drainage in the hills. Of the 74 deaths, 21 have been reported from three landslides in Shimla alone and the toll is expected to rise as people are still feared to be trapped in the debris. 

The NDMA's report, titled National Landslide Risk Management Strategy, particularly flagged Shimla and said that the city was built for a population of around 25,000 but now houses around 3,00,000 people. 

The report also flagged that there was no specific planning for the hills as plans were copied from the various Delhi Master Plans (DMPs), which have itself come under criticism over the years for not factoring in environmental and ecological concerns. For several years now, experts have said the successive Delhi plans encroached upon the Yamuna floodplains in the national capital which contributed to the unprecedented flooding of Delhi this year. 

What does the NDMA report say?

The NDMA's report shows that the plans in place in hilly states are not suitable for hilly areas. 

The report further says that even the plans in place are not implemented properly. 

"The widespread property loss during recent landslide and related hazards like cloudburst and flash-flood have shown that most of the constructions plans are ill-conceived and do not follow standard norms. The design codes are generally not followed even by the government departments. This has created an alarming situation, where large number of unsafe building stock is added each year to the already huge number of existing unsafe buildings in hostile climate, fragile environment and tectonically active unstable of hilly terrain," says the NDMA report, available on its website. 

The NDMA further said that the Himalayan cities are turning into garbage mounds as these places are plagued by untreated sewage and garbage. The report further flagged the chronic water shortage. 

Notably, in recent years, Shimla has had multiple rounds of severe water shortages. Even rain-related incidents lead to water shortages as silt from landslides and flow of mud blocks water supply system in the hills. The rains and rain-related incidents also knock out power systems that affect the supply.

"The cities of the Himalayas are growing and beginning to turn into the mountains of garbage and plastic, untreated sewage, chronic water shortages, unplanned urban growth and even local air pollution because of vehicles. These towns need to be planned, particularly keeping in mind the rush of summer tourists. Many states have experimented from banning plastics, to taxing tourists to better respond to these issues. But they need support and new thinking on everything on traditional architecture practices, local water management through protection of lakes and different systems of sewage and garbage management," says the report. 

The NDMA's report said that whenever incidents like landslides happen, the authorities resort to "quick-fixes" instead of systemic correction of flaws. The report says that while such broad corrective steps might seem expensive at first, the benefit will outweigh the cost.

The report says, "The present engineering practice relies on fragmentary approaches involving quick-fix treatments of landslides, which end up in their recurrence, year after year, at the very same locations. Paucity of funds, absence of delivery capacity, and urgency to deal with immediate landslide danger are generally cited as reasons for this continuing practice. The permanent solutions to our major landslide problems may appear at the face value to be capital intensive and even unaffordable, but in the true analysis, the benefits of permanently fixing landslides will far overweigh.