New Delhi (NVI): About 15 per cent of Mussoorie hill station in Uttarakhand and its surrounding area is highly susceptible to landslides, according to a study by the scientists at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG).
Like most hill townships, Mussoorie in Uttarakhand has witnessed several landslides, resulting from an increased spate of developmental activities.
The increased disaster hazard has led scientists to map the landslide susceptibility of the area.
It found that the dominant part of the area falling under the very high and high landslide susceptible zone lies in the settlement area — Bhataghat, George Everest, Kempty fall, Khattapani, Library road, Galogidhar, and Hathipaon — and is covered by highly fractured Krol limestone exhibiting slope more than 60 degrees.
According to the researchers, various possible causative factors of landslides in the study area include lithology, landuse-landcover, slope, aspect, curvature, elevation, road-cut drainage, and lineament.
The study was carried out in Mussoorie township and its surroundings covering 84 square km in the Lesser Himalayas.
The researchers from the WIHG carried out the study using Geographic Information System (GIS) and high-resolution satellite imageries.
The study could help initiate a large scale landslide hazard, risk, and vulnerability assessment of the hilly townships in different parts of India, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.
The Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (LSM) published in the Journal of Earth System Science also showed that about 29 per cent of the area falls in the moderate landslide susceptible zone and 56 per cent falls in low to very low landslide susceptible zone.
The WIHG team obtained Landslide Occurrence Favourability Score (LOFS) for a particular class of the causal factor of landslide and subsequently calculated the weight of each factor of landslide to finally generate Landslide Susceptible Index (LSI) in GIS platform.
This has been reclassified into five zones using natural break criteria.
-CHK
