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Airo International Research Journal Volume XIV, ISSN: 2320-3714 March, 2018 UGC Approval Number 63012 Impact Factor 0.75 to 3.19 1

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Page 1: Airo International Research Journal Volume XIV, ISSN: 2320 ...€¦ · Volume XIV, ISSN: 2320-3714 March, 2018 UGC Approval Number 63012 Impact Factor 0.75 to 3.19

Airo International Research Journal

Volume XIV, ISSN: 2320-3714 March, 2018 UGC Approval Number 63012 Impact Factor 0.75 to 3.19

1

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Airo International Research Journal

Volume XIV, ISSN: 2320-3714 March, 2018 UGC Approval Number 63012 Impact Factor 0.75 to 3.19

2

A GEO-ENVIRONMENTAL APPRAISAL OF LANDSLIDES ON ROAD

STRETCH NH-22 NEAR DHARAMPUR, HIMACHAL PRADESH,

INDIA

Mukta Sharma

Assistant Professor, Dept. of civil Engineering, IKGPTU

Shivani Sharma

Project Research fellow, Dept. of civil Engineering, IKGPTU

Declaration of Author: I hereby declare that the content of this research paper has been truly made by me including the title of the research paper/research article, and no serial sequence of any sentence has been copied through internet or any other source except references or som e unavoidable essential or technical terms. In case of finding any patent or copy right content of any source or other author in my paper/article, I shall always be responsible for further clarification or any legal issues. For sole right content of different author or different source, which was unintentionally or intentionally used in this research paper shall immediately be removed from this journal and I shall be accountable for any further legal issues, and there will be no responsibility of Journal in any matter. If anyone has some issue related to the content of this research paper’s copied or plagiarism content he/she may contact on my above mentioned email ID.

ABSTRACT

NH 22 is one of the major National Highways and the only road connecting Shimla with Chandigarh, Haryana

and Punjab. Various newspapers reported more than a dozen landslides in the month of June, July and August

2017 on this highway, which was otherwise been a comfortable route. An expansion of four laning of this

highway is in the process. Unplanned excavation is clearly the major reason for these landslides which has a

multitude of road accidents leading to losses in terms of life and economy apart from creating chaos on the

entire stretch. As a part of the study, 25 km road stretch from Timber trail (Parwanoo) to Kumarhatti was

traversed and 26 landslides were recorded out of which a few were quite major. These landslides have become

an unpredictable dangers in this area, particularly the rubble and boulder mounds, which flank the sides of the

highway. This also poses a threat to the field’s downhill, as these can be easily washed away by heavy

downpour. The entire traversed stretch of the road from Timber trail to Kumarhatti has become highly landslide

prone. Geologically, sandstones intercalated with shales are repeatedly exposed in this area. Area is in the

close vicinity of two major thrusts passing through this area making some of the slopes inherently unstable.

Discontinuity planes have also played a major role in the rock failure at a few of the sites. Detailed geological

investigation of all these reported landslides and other slopes for the slope stability studies have been done. The

scope of this paper is to understand the nature of these landslides and also to study the environmental and

social impact of the same.

Keywords: Landslides, Geo-environment, Road widening, Social impact

1. INTRODUCTION

In the Himalayan terrain slope failures are one of

the most frequently experienced disasters. There

are number of factors which are responsible for

slope failures in Himalayas like geo-dynamics,

steep slopes, fragile geology, hydro-geological

conditions with the natural denudation processes

like weathering and erosion coupled with intense

rainfall (Umrao et.al. 2011). Man-modified slope

constructed for major transportation and

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excavations are the additional triggering factors

along with the factors liable for landsliding in the

natural slopes (Das et al. 2010). Slope failures

along the roads connecting distant mountainous

destinations have a great environmental, social and

economic impact. Numbers of major and minor

landslides are reported every year in the Himalayan

terrain especially in the rainy season disconnecting

the major routes, causing lot of inconvenience to

locals and commuters (Rautela and Pande 2005).

This trend is expected to continue and even worsen

in future due to rapid increase in developmental

activities like road construction, unplanned

mushrooming of shops, hotels, dhabas along the

road side and continued deforestation. The

anthropogenic effects on the mountains resulting

into landslides have become one of the most

important causative factors for slope failures. The

present focus of the paper is a 25 km road stretch of

National Highway 22. NH-22 also known as

Hindustan –Tibet road is one of the major road

connecting Shimla with state of Haryana, Punjab

and Chandigarh. 26 major and minor landslides

have been mapped on a 25 km road stretch from

Timber Trail Resort to Kumarhatti on the highway.

These landslides are reported to be initiated during

the rainy season in months of July and August

2017. Occasional landslides following torrential

rains are not new to this region. However,

the damage caused by these has

enormously increased during this year, after the

beginning of road widening project NH-22 from

Parwanoo to Solan. The unplanned excavation of

rock slopes for road construction and widening

makes the slopes vulnerable (Umrao et.al 2011,

Sarkar et.al, 2012). The stability of the slopes of

NH-22 appears to be altered by ill-planned cutting

of the mountains for the road widening causing

number of failures. This has badly laid down the

entire stretch from Timber Trail to Kumarhatti. The

present study aims to assess the stability of road cut

slopes of this road section and evaluate all the

factors responsible for the first time reported slope

failures. An attempt has been made to assess the

environmental and social impact of these slope

failures.

2. Study Area

The study area, located at 30°5'47'' N latitude,

76°59'41'' E longitude represents varied relief with

high rugged mountains having sharp ridges, deep

narrow valleys, moderately steep slopes,

escarpments, cliff faces. It has generally been

observed that resistant rocks like hard sandstone

form cliffs and escarpments and shale, mudstone

form moderately rounded crested ridges with

moderate to moderately steep slopes. Geologically,

it comprises mainly Palaeogene rocks that are made

up of sandstones, shales and clay beds and are

classified as Subathu, Dagshai and Kasauli

formations (Fig 1). These formations are repeatedly

exposed on the road stretch undertaken for study,

National Highway -22. Megascopically Subathu,

Dagshai, and Kasauli are differentiated mostly by

color differences as these are represented as green,

red and grey facies respectively depending upon

the dominant shale color (Raiverman and Raman

1971). The Subathu formation consisting of

sandstones and shales, is the oldest unit of this

basin, and is structurally and tectonically disturbed.

This formation occurs as a thrust slice between

Paleogene rocks in the northeast and Neogene

rocks in the Southwest. Dagshai formation is

marked by red-violet to purple shales and clays and

fine grained sandstone beds in the study area

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(Sharma and Ravindra 2007). The rocks of the

Kasauli formation are hard, grey, compact, massive

sandstone with intercalations of shale and

mudstone. There is development of Intrafolial folds

in this region. Intrafolial folds develops due to

shearing and occurs in two layers, when a sequence

of interlayered weak and strong layer (eg.

interbedded shale and sandstone) is caught in two

opposing wall of shearing (Kumar and Loyal

2006). Two major dislocations of regional

importance, namely, Main Boundary Fault and

Surajpur Thrust falls in this area (Kumar and

Loyal, 2006, Sharma et al 2007). Besides, there are

faults and thrust of local nature. MBF separates the

rocks of Neogene i.e. Lower Shiwaliks from

Subathu formation and in the Surajpur tectonic unit

Subathus are overlying the Kasauli formation

(Kumar and Loyal, 2006). The area which lies in

the close vicinity of faults is found to be highly

fractured, sheared, and pulverized.

3. Landslides on NH-22

Since the road-widening project began on National

Highway 22 in April 2017, 26 major and minor

landslides (10m to 250m) are recorded and out of

these at least five-six sites have developed into new

large landslide zones (Fig 2). Of these at Timber

trail resort towards upslope about 400 meters

stretch seems to be almost falling apart (Fig. 2a).

Then, there is a newly-formed landslide zone near

Jabli, which has brought down a section of the hill

over a width of more than 70 m (Fig 2c). Although

construction companies have removed the debris

from the road, tonnes of rock still remain in the

landslide zone, posing a hazard. Similarly, some

landslide zones have been created near Dharampur

and Kumarhatti, where there will be a continuous

threat of landslides in the coming time (Fig. 4, Fig.

5, Fig. 6).

It was observed that majority of the landslides

originate in rock cut slopes and was noted to be

debris and rock slides (Fig 4a). Few landslides

originate in weathered rock mass due to highly

jointed rocks (Fig 4b). Large fragments of rocks

sliding down the plane of slope (Fig. 5a) and

colluvial soil material flowing down as mud flow

was also commonly observed (Fig. 5b). Huge

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volume of rock chunks was found to be settled near

the base of landslides (Fig.6). Landslide inventory

of road segment describing the characteristics of

these slope failures is presented in Table 1. These

landslides differ in their mode of failure because of

varying lithology and structure but are reported to

be initiated after the beginning of road widening

work. Rainfall has become the important triggering

factor. The frequency of land sliding has increased

many folds during rainy season and affected the

communication, trade and tourism adversely.

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Table1. Landslide Inventory of NH-22 (Timber trail to Kumarhatti)

S. No.

Latitude- Longitude

Slope angle

Bedding Joint Lithology Landslide Type/ Width

Affected area/ Anthropogenic activity

Dip Amt. Dip Strike Amt.

1. 30050’38.48’’N 78053’09.44’’E

550 1120 100 N700E N200W-S200E

750 Sandstone Rock Slide /20m

Road/ Road widening

2. 30050’08.999’’N 76059’01.997’’E

500 3050 420 S150

W N750W-S750E

580 Sandstone Rock Slide / 35-40m

Road/ Road widening

3. 30050’05.997’’N 76059’05.612’’E

550 1900 530 S150E S750W-N750E

360 Sandstone Rock Slide /400m

Road/ Road widening

4. 30050’10.956’’N 76059’11.212’’E

450 1550 300 S230

W N670W-S670E

700 Purple Shale

Continuous zone of slides (Active) (250m)

Road/ Road widening

5. 30050’12.880’’N 76059’02.997’’E

600 3450 620 N100E N800W-S800W

550 Sandstone Rock slide/30m

Road/ Road widening

6. 30050’23.978’’N 76059’07.512’’E

580 Purple Shale

Debris fall /20m

Road/ Road widening

7. 30050’25.334’’N 76059’05.612’’E

530 3150 510 N120E N780W-S780E

400 Purple Shale

Debris slide/30m

Road/ Road widening

8. 30050’25.334’’N 560 Sandstone Rock Slide Road/ Road

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76059’05.612’’E /20m widening

9. 30050’26.344’’N 76059’28.222’’E

520 3350 550 Shale Debris (tree trunks)/50m

Road/ Road widening

10. 30050’27.837’’N 76059’33.006’’E

550 Shale Debris Slide / 40m

Road/ Road widening

11. 30050’37.617’’N 76059’30.989’’E

200 1450 420 3080 410 Highly weathered Shale

debris Slide /300m

Road/ Road widening

12.

30050’47.787’’N 76059’41.636’’E

310 3450 200 1270 700 Purple Shale

Debris slide/20m

Road, stream on lower side due to disposed debris/ Road widening

13. 30050’09.390’’N 76059’57.956’’E

480 350 300 1350 600 Purple Shale

Debris fall /40m

Road/ Road widening

14. 30050’57.037’’N 76059’47.006’’E

450 1450 350 Kasauli Sandstone

Rock Slide /40m

Road/ Road widening

15. 30050’58.997’’N 76059’50.997’’E

520

Kasauli Sandstone

Rock Slide /40m

Road/ Road widening

16. 30050’40.897’’N 76059’52.337’’E

540 3100 300 1450 530 Alluvium Alluvium flow/300m

Road, stream on the lower side due to disposed debris/ Road widening

17. 30051’25.591’’N 76059’01.360’’E

530 1350 330 Sandstone Rock sllide/30m

Road/ Road widening

18. 30052’16.882’’N 76059’52.423’’E

580 50 530 Shale Debris fall (Tree trunk)/150m

Road/ Road widening

19. 30052’39.517’’N 76059’39.336’’E

550 Sandstone Big boulders/40m

Road/ Road widening

20. 30052’32.688’’N 76059’57.982’’E

450 Dagshai Sandstone

Rock slide(Active)/70m

Road/ Road widening

21. 30053’14.221’’N 76059’52.090’’E

600 Red Sandstone

Rock slide/30m

Road/ Road widening

22. 30053’25.205’’N 76059’50.482’’E

570 Purple Shale

Debris flow /20m

Road/ Road widening

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23. 30053’12.699’’N 76000’21.66’’E

580 350 370 Purple Shale

Debris flow/30m

Road/ Road widening

24. 30053’37.490’’N 77000’11.862’’E

560 Alluvium Alluvium flow/20m

Road/ Road widening

25. 30053’54.401’’N 76059’14.107’’E

520 3500 520 Shale Debris(tree trunks)/50m

Road/ Road widening

26. 30053’45.523’’N 76000’37.77’’E

550 3150 250 Shale Debris slide/45m

Road/ Road widening

3.1 CAUSATIVE FACTORS FOR

LANDSLIDES ON NH 22

a. Lithology

Lithology has a control over the occurrence of

landslide. Softer rocks like shale, clay rocks are

more prone to landslides in comparison to harder

rocks like quartzite and limestone. Keeping in view

the overall terrain condition of the study area, the

major rocks are classified as sandstone, shales,

siltstone, mudstone, Limestone, quartzite and

alluvium. Presence of alternate hard and soft clayey

bands and active tectonic zones makes the geology

of the area very fragile. Shale is highly prone to

weathering and once its cleavage is in the direction

of the dip, landslides are bound to occur when it

rains. In addition to this, the soils formed from

shale are relatively impermeable therefore when it

rains; their weight increases as the amount of rain

increases leading to mass movement. Highly

jointed sandstones also support the incidences of

landslides.

b. Hydrological Factors

Rainfall contributes to the instability of slopes by

means of infiltration or increase of pore pressure by

raising water table (Crozier, 1986).The diverse

influences exerted by the rain have been

extensively investigated by many researchers

working in the field of slope stability and landslide

control (Asch et al, 1999; Lin and Jeng, 2000). It is

noted that for deep seated landslides, the swelling

of groundwater table or perched water table along

with rock and soil softening by rainfall infiltration

influences the stability whereas, shallow landslides

are dominated by transient pore pressure in

response to rainfall process, combined with water

washing or soil erosion. It is generally accepted

that the rainfall triggering of landslides is

controlled by hydrogeology of slope forming

materials (Tsaparas et al, 2002). The percolation of

water is facilitated by the inter-bedded sandstone

and shale along the hillslopes in the present area of

study. Further, the water flow appears to be

restricted by the blockade of natural outlets. There

is more infiltration than the run-off along the man-

made barricades/ retaining walls. Seepage or

percolation of rain water appears to be the

important factor of the slope stability. Majority of

the landslides are found to have initiated in this

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year after the monsoon precipitation in the months

of July and August 2017. Rainfall trends of the

study area are observed and compared in terms of

amount of rainfall received in the peak rainfall

months that is from June to August for the year

2017 and 2016. It is observed that 200mm to

300mm rainfall was received in these months in

2017 which is comparatively lesser than previous

year i.e. 250mm to 316mm. Even though the

rainfall received is less than previous years more

landslide incidences thus directly owes to exposed

slopes due to road widening. Rainfall washed away

the soil cover which is exposed due to massive

deforestation and slope cutting. The region has

been very stable in the past with no major incidents

of landslides, even during peak of rainy seasons,

but it has been rendered vulnerable due to human

interference.

c. Road cutting

The involvement of geologists, planners and

engineers is important for any hill road

construction project. Unscientifically-planned roads

and buildings have greatly increased landslide

incidences not only in this area, but throughout the

Himalayas. Human interference with the slopes, to

cut roads or enlargement of highways, has led to

massive landsides (Siddique et al 2015, Umrao et al

2011). Cutting and filling along roads and the

removing of forest vegetation are capable of greatly

altering slope form and ground water conditions

(Swanson and Dyrness 1975). These altered

conditions may significantly increase the degree of

landslide hazard present (Sidle, Pearce et al. 1985;

Varnes 1985). DeGraff (1982) illustrated that

building a road, which cuts off the toe of a steep

slope can increase, landslide susceptibility. The

four laning project of NH-22 in its first phase, from

Timber Trail to kumarhatti is under construction at

present. The cutting and excavation carried out for

the widening of the road in the initial stage has

amounted to imbalance in the natural stability of

the slopes, in terms of slackened slope mass and

moderately steep slope gradient. Excavation has

left the slopes bare and exposed to the impacts of

rainfall. Number of landslides on the highway has

exposed the fragile ecology of this road.

d. Deforestation

Evidence for a cause and effect relationship

between landsliding and cutting of trees is

reviewed in various papers (Gray 1973, Schwarz et

al, 2010). Forest plays a significant role in the

protection of soil, and deforestation can cause

erosion of soil, slow movements (creeps) and even

large landslides. For widening of highways large

scale deforestation, indiscriminate cutting of trees

and removal of forest cover in this area is being

carried out. More than twelve thousand trees are

reported to be cut off from Parwanoo to solan since

the beginning of this project. Deforestation is the

prime cause for soil erosion and soil movement.

Reducing forest cover in this area leads to

instability of the lithology.

4. Environmental and Social Impact of

Landslides on NH-22

Landslides have a great impact on environment

which further directly effects the socioeconomic

sector. Landslides are destructive agents. They

change and modify the landscape – they disturb it.

Destruction and disturbance is costly in terms of

loss of resources as landslides destroys forests,

agricultural land, deposits sediment into a stream,

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or pollutes a drinking water source (M.Geeratsema

et,al 2009, Geertsema M., Pojar, J.J. 2007)

The present condition of NH-22 road stretch

between timber trail to kumarhatti is very annoying

for both the locals and commuters. The road stretch

is filled with debris material, uprooted trees and lot

of dust around. Locals are distressed with

continuous dust due to excavation works and

erosional processes. Large bulges of dislodged

material from the excavated slopes are formed at

the toe of the slopes. It was observed as a part of

the road clearance, this waste mass is disposed off

on the downhill side over the riverside slopes

further blocking the natural drainages (Fig 3). This

is adding the sediment load in the stream down the

valley and can even dam the stream. Landslide

dams can flood the valleys and can pose great

threat to human lives and environment.

During the field survey, seven-eight residents of

that area conveyed that cracks have appeared in

their houses after the excavation and land sliding.

Loss to the property and agricultural fields of the

local people has hampered their economic growth.

The fields have started creeping. Landslides pose

inconveniences to the commuters due to heavy

traffic jam en-route Chandigarh Shimla as this is

the only highway connecting these two major

tourist and political destinations. Landslides during

later monsoons also created problems in movement

of horticulture produce like apples as this very road

is used for transportation and hence affecting

livelihood of farmers of hilly state. People from

this region of Himachal Pradesh have access to

major Government Hospital, PGIMER which is

located in Chandigarh. Hence, threat to life of those

in critical health conditions was caused as the

ambulances got stuck in the heavy traffic jams in

few reported incidences. All this has traumatised

the people as they have to live in same state of

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critical condition of slope failures and thus in fear

of loosing life and property.

Since the project is in its initial stage, and shall be

carried out in phases and extended upto Shimla in

coming months proper consolidation through

appropriate structural designing and inventory or

landslides can be prepared so that the excavation in

the up-coming areas would help in avoiding

landslides to a large extent.

5. Discussion

With the advent of four laning of the National

Highway 22, the entire stretch where work is in

progress has been rendered unstable. The

preliminary field investigations and analysis of

available existing information suggest that the main

cause of failure on the uphill slope is excavation.

Continuous excavation due to road widening has

created piles of loose material over and around the

slopes. This unconsolidated overburden easily

allows water to percolate thereby saturating the

slopes and causing instability. Therefore loose

debris must be removed from over the slope. This

can also reduce the dead load and minimises the

chances of slope instability.

Particularly during the rainy season, rising ground

water levels, unlined gullies, and naked slopes

together allow rainwater to saturate the subsurface.

This results in the development of undesirable pore

pressure that reduces the shear strength of slope

forming material. Hence, it is imperative that the

naked slopes be covered by vegetation. Slopes must

be stabilised by improving the surface and

subsurface drainage conditions. Undesirable

surface waters should be drained into natural

stream channels using lined drains or it shall be

diverted to sites where running water will not affect

the area.

Failures along the discontinuity planes in the highly

jointed and fractured rockmass are also commonly

observed in this area. Presence of discontinuities

allows more water to seep in and thereby increases

the weathering susceptibility of slope mass.

Chances of developing of new cracks also increase

with this. This loosens the structural integrity of

slope mass. Any infrastructure developed on such

sites would be endangered. Therefore all the

discontinuities may be temporarily or permanently

sealed by mortar, asphalt, etc. In North Eastern

India, polythene sheets spread over affected areas

have come out as excellent temporary measures

(Nagaland State Disaster Management Plan 2012).

It is possible to reduce the potential impact of

natural landslide activity and limit development-

initiated landslide occurrence by early

consideration of these effects. The involvement of

geologists, planners and engineers is therefore

important for any hill road construction project. A

geological investigation is important to avert a

number of unforeseen problems that arise during

and after the actual construction is required. Also,

during the construction, the geological structures

like faults, cross faults, thrusts and many other

linear features are often exposed during the cutting

process and it may prove to be extremely hazardous

for the stability of the slopes in the mountainous

region (Bell 2009, Satyaprakash et.al 2015). If

detailed geological investigations had been done in

the region, these problems would not have cropped

up. Proper remedial measures must be taken at the

earliest as the problem can be alleviated to a large

extent as the widening of the highway is yet to

cover a long distance/ stretch. If proper measures

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are not taken immediately, this road too would turn

out to be similar to many other landslide prone

declared endangered routes. Environmental

restoration in terms of afforestation should be

carried out side by side in terms that the number of

trees chopped down during the process should be

compensated with the planting of trees in the

surrounding areas. It is imperative that stakeholders

must be awared and cautioned of potentially

hazardous areas.

References:

1) Asch, T. W. J. Buma, and L.P.H.V. beek,

(1999), “A view on some hydrological

triggering systems in landslides:”

Geomorphology, v. 30, pp 25-32.

2) Bell Fred G. (2009), “Environmental

Geology and Planning Geology” v 5,

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems

(EOLSS)

3) Das I, Sahoo S, Hack R, Stein A,Van

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