LANDSLIDE HAZARD EVALUATION OF HILL SLOPES IN AND AROUND MUSSOORIE TOWNSHIP, INDIA

Abstract

Landslides are a widespread and frequently occurring natural hazard, which cause serious damages to lives and property, especially on mountainous terrains (Anbalagan et al., 2008). Particularly, landslide occurrences are more important in highly urbanized hill stations where they may cause severe damages to properties and affect human life (Anbalagan et al., 2008). India’s long Himalayan Mountain in the north is geologically a young range of mountain chain. Every year this region faces several hundreds of landslides, from Jammu & Kashmir to North Eastern states including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim Himalaya, leading to enormous loss of life and property (Anbalagan et al., 2007; Kumar et al., 2017). The Uttarakhand Himalaya has been a hotspot for landslide related researches, particularly in the last two decades due to the frequent occurrence of landslides and increased pressure of urbanisation in the region (Gupta et al., 2013, 2000, 1993; Gupta and Anbalagan, 1997; Kumar et al., 2008 Ray et al., 2009) In this context, stability of hill slopes in and around heavily urbanized township of Mussoorie have been evaluated systematically in order to identify suitable remedial measures and to identify suitable sites for future urbanization in and around the township.