Monday, 22 October 2012

Landslides!!

While travelling in India it would be useful to keep this fact tucked away in your mind. The Durham Fatal Landslide Database has identified two hot-spots in India. They are:
  1. Southern edge of the Himalayan arc and
  2. Southwest coast of India.
Most fatal landslides occur from May to October- the triggering factor being rain from the monsoon.

The Global Disaster Watch Monitor quakes, storms, hurricanes, landslides, tsunami and other force majeure events are monitored and recorded on regular basis.

Recently I had gone to Kedarnath. We had parked the car overnight along side a steep hill.The entrance to the Kedarnath trekking route is so constricted that parking becomes is a major problem.  Next morning we found a boulder of medium size had crashed on the bonnet of the car. On our way back again a boulder came hurtling down the mountain missing our car by less than a meter. Travelling in mountainous region has its drawbacks. As the legendary German climber Reinhold Messener once said, "Mountains are not fair or unfair-they are just dangerous!"

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