Reconnaissance survey report of landslide in

Mansa Devi
Loose sediment, rock and weathered materials usually remain stationary and
stable on a slope, however matter can be disturbed naturally by earthquakes
or by heavy rainfall, or by human activity such as road construction, when
disturbed, the debris is pulled down by gravity and, with water acting as a
lubricant, a landslide is created. The damage can be disastrous- wiping out
communications networks or causing damage to life and property but the
good news is that, unlike other geological hazards, landslides can be
predicted with technology.
Main area of Haridwar which is highly effected due to landslide

Mansa Devi hill is spread out the area of approximately 2 km. (?) from
Mansa Devi main gate to at the end of Bhemgoda road. A reconnaissance
survey had been carried out around the Mansa Hill locating the landslide
prone areas. It has been found that there are many, small as well as large,
landslides along the slopes of the Mansa hill and ominous for highly built-up
areas and populations that has been developed along the foot hills and
adjoining areas near Mansa hill specifically along the Bhemgoda road,
Haridwar. The built-up areas are in danger zone due to landslide in Mansa
hill towards the loss of human properties and human being himself.

On the date 25/08/08 to 26/08/08 of my visit, I visit the route from Haridwar
bus stop to Mansa Devi hill. The distance from the bus stop to Mansa Devi
gate is 2 km. and the time taken is 5 minutes by local vehicle. There are two
route for go to Mansa Devi temple – one route by the trolley and the second
route by on foot. The distance from the gate to Mansa temple by on foot is
approximately 1 hour i.e. speed 0.89 km/hr.

I visit this area but there is no such type of deformation due to landslide by
which the temple is coming up in the prone situation. Some years ago in
1994, 1996, and 2004 there had been a lot of area deformities due to
landslide and all the observation i.e. how much area deformities, what is the
% deformation and how much properties losses are currently available on
the forest department of Haridwar.

There are two latest prone area of my visit which is regularly damaged and
in the future there will be definitely landslide occur and also would be loss
of human being and their properties as follows –

(1) Bheemgoda road hill by pass

(2) Hill by pass between the seedy marg and road marg

On the date of 29/08/08 to 30/08/08 of my second visit /survey i checked

both both the area and collect all the information for our land warning
system. Above the two prone areas, the first one description is as follows-

ROUTE OF BHEEMGODA ROAD:

 Mansa Devi gate to hari ki pauri distance is 1 km. and from hari ki pauri to
Bheemgoda road is another approximately 1 km. In the range of Bheemgoda
road the sankar ashram area has spoiled due to landslide and in observe also
the property loss due to the latest landslide on the previous date 20/08/08. I
have to taken all the advice through Haridwar local public for forthcoming
landslide at the same place.

I have already collected the coordinates of that area by the Magellan GPS
receiver.
The total area from hari ki pauri to bheemgoda road (sankar ashram) is very
close to landslide. In this area and all the area has to be damaged or
dangerous to local public in the rainy season. The work has been done by the
PWD department but no progress has been seen for the Haridwar
Public to the protection of landslide.

ORGANIATION WHO IS PRESENTLY WORKING

MANSA HILL LANDSLIDE
By central scientific instrument organization, council of scientific and
industrial research, Govt. of India, Chandigarh and Thaper institute of Engg.
And Technology. By this organization recently developed technique for
landslide monitoring is based on time- domain reflectometry. This
Technology uses coaxial cable and a cable tester; however, it suffers from
errors in reading caused by water seepage and electromagnetic interference.

Experiments were performed at an active landslide site near Mansa Devi

temple in uttaranchal, India. At landslide prone location, a fiber optic
interrogation system was installed, along with the conventional
instrumentation. The idea was to fix the threshold by comparing the data
obtained from the optic interrogator with that from conventional
instrumentation such as the tilt meter, inclinometer etc. The fiber optic
sensor installed along the hill slope has micro bend resolution enhancer with
a real for holding about 10m of fiber enclosed in a biconical casing, which
was used at the junction of the two micro bend – resolution enhancer to
simulate the effect of a landslide. The sensor cable show is 20m long, so it is
sufficient to monitor the bulk of the landslide’s movement. The cable length
can be increased according to the size of the area to be monitored.
During monsoon one or two incidents lightning of cloud burst and health
floods are occurring Mansa hill in 1991.

In contrast to the slides along the “main boundary thrust” (MBT) and “main
central thrust” (MCT), the slides along the “delhi-haridwar-harsil” (DHH)
fringes are on the eastern / western side of hill slope as the DHH trends in
NNE- SSW direction e.g. Mansa Devi slides in Haridwar facing eastward.

These slides block the road, communication and pose danger to the
settlements while show movement or creep that are seen in soil, that are
quite thin (hardly 20cm thick) on the hill slope.
There are several tear faults parallel to the trend of the DHH which are
causing problems of mass movement. The landslide/ slope failures can be
minimized by taking suitable remedial measure and the treatment have to
location specific.

In our study field of visit of landslide in Mansa Devi hill on the date
23/09/08. We observed firstly the area which is very highly effected due to
landslide e.g. most population of Haridwar are comming in the range of
landslide. Then we have to establish the one reference point at the Baraj
Bridge (bench mark) and the 6 observation point on the landslide area which
is as follows with their photograph.

1- Baraj bridge reference point

 (N 29º57.522´ E 78º10.705´)

2-CP-4 (Bhemgoda Road Shankar Ashram)

Coordinate (N 29º57.850´ E 78º10.347´)

Bhemgoda road shankar ashram

3-CP-1(By pass road between the Mansa hill)

Coordinate (N 29º58.067´ E 78º10.056´)

Observation area of landslide

4- CP-2(By pass road between Mansa hill)
Coordinate (N29º57.994´ E 78º10.101´)
 Observation area of landslide

5- CP-3 (By pass road Mansa hill)

Coordinate (N29º57.967´ E 78º10.150´)

Observation area of landslide

6-CP-6(By pass Mansa hill road band)

Coordinate (N29º58.180´ E 78º10.105´)

Observation area of landslide

7- CP-5 (The area between Shankar ashram and hill by pass band road of
Mansa)
Coordinate (N29º58.131´ E 78º10.132´)

CP-5 (N29º58.131´ E 78º10.132´)

Observation area of landslide

Then we have to create a route path between all the observation point and
landslide area during our reconnaissance survey with the help of “GARMIN
GPS RECEIVER” (WGS 84) .
Reference Point of Baraj Bridge near bheemgoda road

Route created during field survey

 Route created our field survey at CP- 1

Route created of landslide area due to flow of water

Route created of landslide area at CP-2

Route created of landslide at CP-3

 Landslide area of along the road of Mansa hill

Landslide area due flow of water

WAY POINT PROPERTIES

WAY POINT ALTITUDE TIME
Reference at Baraj 272.7 m 11:18:06 am
bridge
CP-4(Shankar Ashram) 276.3 m 10:56:05 am
CP-6 324.9 m
CP-5(Between shankar 313.5 m 10:23:30 am
Ashram and Mansa hill
road)
CP-1(Between Mansa 405.9 m 9:43:03 am
hill)
CP-2(Between Mansa 391.5 m 9:50:20 am
hill)
CP-3(Between Mansa 385.8 m 9:55:18 am
hill)

Distance, area, and bearing from Baraj Bridge to all

observation point:
Reference Way point Distance Area Bearing
point
Baraj To CP-4 0.5 mi 4740.12 sq m 316º,true
Bridge
Baraj To CP-6 1.0 mi 56804.67 sq m 322º,true
bridge
Baraj To CP-5 0.9 mi 44034.75 sq m 321º,true
bridge
Baraj To CP-2 0.8 mi 41154.48 sq m 312º,true
bridge
Baraj To CP-3 0.8 mi 31862.97 sq m, 313º,true
bridge
Baraj To CP-1 0.9 mi 25240.05 sq m 314º,true
bridge
 Distance, area, and bearing of all landslide area from
Shankar ashram CP-4
Shankar ashram Landslide Distance Area Bearing
reference point way
point
CP-4 To CP-5 0.4 mi 2148.03 sq m 327º, true
CP-4 To CP-6 0.5 mi 4189.68 sq m 328º, true
CP-4 To CP-1 0.5 mi 50757.21 sq m 311º, true
CP-4 To CP-3 0.6 mi 43157.16 sq m 305º, true
CP-4 To CP-2 0.5 mi 54611.46 sq m 304º, true

Latitude and longitude of all way point in terms of

hdddº mm.mmm´
Way point Latitude Longitude
CP-1 N 29º52.154´ E 77º53.903´
CP-2 N 29º57.994´ E 78º10.101´
CP-3 N 29º57.967´ E 78º10.150´
CP-4 N 29º57.850´ E 78º10.347´
CP-5 N 29º58.131´ E 78º10.132´
CP-6 N 29º58.180´ E 78º10.105´
LS-2 N 29º58.039´ E 78º10.080´
LS-1-P N 29º58.067´ E 78º10.056´
REF. BARAJ N 29º57.522´ E 78º10.705´
Map of landslide prone area

PRADEEP KUMAR (pradeep_nt12@rediffmail.com)

Research scholor
IIT-Roorkee (Uttarakhand)