Ukhimath landslide 2012 at Uttarakhand, India: Causes and consequences

Abstract

Being a tectonically active zone with fragile geological condition, Himalaya possesses high potentiality of both rainfall and earthquake induced landslide occurrence in Uttarakhand, India. These landslides eventually cause many casualties as well as huge property loss. Just On 14th September of 2012, there was a shocking rainfall induced landslide in the form of debris flow at Ukhimath, Rudraprayag district in the lap of lesser Himalaya. Present study is focused on this recent event of Ukhimath landslide. The primary aim is to find out possible causes and it's after math, mainly the assessment of damaged areas with the help of detail field observation and subsequent remote sensing techniques by comparing very high resolution Geoeye-1 and the Cartosat-1 imagery of prior to and after the event with special emphasis on building, road and agricultural land. Detail investigation after the calamity in the study area suggests that relatively less resistant highly fractured low grade metamorphic rocks and prolong rainfall for three days might be the main conceivable reason for the initiation of the debris flow near Ukhimath town and its surroundings. Considerable number of buildings, several important roads as well as cultivable lands were badly affected and damaged by the landslide event which has subsequently been analyzed by pre and post event imagery.