Landslide Disaster Management A case

studyVillage Malin Pune

ABHIJEET C GHOLAP

DEEP D MAKADIA

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

SINHGAD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND
SCIENCE, NARHE, PUNE, INDIA.

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

SINHGAD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND
SCIENCE, NARHE, PUNE, INDIA.

Abhijeet.gholap100@gmail.com

Abstract Prevention Is Better Than Cure This

proverb itself axis the terminology of the disaster
management. The present paper focus on an approache
towards the natural disaster with its management and
found out the way in order to be prepared, or make our
mind built for such activities which can unstable our
environment .The disaster cannot be controlled totally, but
the plans such as preparedness as the management for the
disaster can help us to find the way for our best and
approach to save the lives those are lost in such disaster.
Malin incident has been studied to understand the natural
disaster like landslide by which as a significance, various
places were surveyed where such disaster can take place,
and various ideas were put forward.

Deepmakadiya23@gmail.com

environment (e.g., cyclones, earthquakes, tsunami, floods,

landslides, and volcanic eruptions).
II.
Man-Made Disasters
These are disasters or emergency situations of which the
principal, direct causes are identifiable human actions,
deliberate or otherwise. Apart from technological disasters
this mainly involves situations in which civilian populations
suffer casualties, losses of property, basic services and means of
livelihood as a result of war, civil strife or other conflicts, or
policy implementation. In many cases, people are forced to
leave their homes, giving rise to congregations of refugees or
externally and/or internally displaced persons as a result of civil
strife, an airplane crash, a major fire, oil spill, epidemic,
terrorism, etc.

Keywords: Disaster, Landslide, lives, management,

I. DISASTER MANAGEMENT
All communities are vulnerable to disasters, both natural
and man-made, therefore there is a need to build ourselves or
arrange the different terminology in order to face the disasters.
Hereby with the aim of reducing this vulnerability and
improving disaster responsiveness. So its important to undergo
some phenomenon and the important terms of the disaster
management.

III.
NATURAL DISASTER- LANDSLIDE
The term landslide refers to the downward movement of
masses of rock and soil. Landslides are caused by one or a
combination of the following factors: change in slope gradient,
increasing the load the land must bear, shocks and vibrations,
change in water content, ground water movement, frost action,
weathering of shocks, removal or, or changing the type of
vegetation covering slopes. Landslide hazard areas occur where
the land has certain characteristics which contribute to the risk
of the downhill movement of material.

II. DISASTER
Disaster can be defined as disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society. Disasters involve widespread human,
material, economic or environmental impacts, which exceed the
ability of the affected community or society to cope using its
own resources.
Disasters are often classified as:
I.

A. Causes

A slope greater than 15 percent.

Landslide activity or movement occurred during the

last 10,000 years.

Stream or wave activity which has caused erosion,

undercut a bank or cut into a bank to cause the
surrounding land to be unstable.

The presence or potential for snow avalanches.

The presence of an alluvial fan which indicates

vulnerability to the flow of debris or sediments.

Natural Disasters

These types of disaster naturally occur in proximity to, and pose

a threat to people, structures or economic assets. They are
caused by biological, geological, seismic, hydrologic, or
meteorological conditions or processes in the natural

The presence of impermeable soils, such as silt or

clay, which are mixed with granular soils such as sand
and gravel.

Landslides can also be triggered by other natural

hazards such as rains, floods, earthquakes, as well as
human-made causes, such as grading, terrain cutting
and filling, excessive development, etc. Because the
factors affecting landslides can be geophysical or
human-made, they can occur in developed areas,
undeveloped areas, or any area where the terrain has
been altered for roads, houses, utilities, buildings, etc.
IV.

MANAGEMENT

Disaster management is an enormous task. They are not

confined to any particular location, neither do they disappear as
quickly as they appear. Therefore, it is imperative that there is
proper management to optimize efficiency of planning and
response. Due to limited resources, collaborative efforts at the
governmental, private and community levels are necessary.
This level of collaboration requires a coordinated and
organized effort to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to,
and recover from emergencies and their effects in the shortest
Period.

A.) RESPONSE
Initial actions taken as the event takes place. It involves efforts
to minimize the hazards created by a disaster. Examples:
evacuation; search and rescue; emergency relief.
B.) RECOVERY
Returning the community to normal. Ideally, the affected area
should be put in a condition equal to or better than it was
before the disaster took place. Examples: temporary housing;
grants; medical care.
C.) MIGITATION
Measures put in place to minimize the results from a disaster.
Examples: building codes and zoning; vulnerability analyses;
public education.
D.) PREPAREDNESS
Planning how to respond. Examples: preparedness plans;
emergency exercises/training; warning systems.
V.

PREPAREDNESS

The goal of emergency preparedness programs is to achieve a

satisfactory level of readiness to respond to any emergency
situation through programs that strengthen the technical and
managerial capacity of governments, organizations, and
communities. These measures can be described as logistical
readiness to deal with disasters and can be enhanced by having
response mechanisms and procedures, rehearsals, developing
long-term and short-term strategies, public education and
building early warning systems. Preparedness can also take the
form of ensuring that strategic reserves of food, equipment,
water, medicines and other essentials are maintained in cases
of national or local catastrophes.
During the preparedness phase, governments, organizations,
and individuals develop plans to save lives, minimize disaster
damage, and enhance disaster response operations.
Preparedness measures include: Preparedness plans
Emergency exercises/training, Warning systems, Emergency
communications systems, Evacuations plans and training,
Resource inventories, Emergency personnel/contact lists,
Mutual aid agreements, Public information/education

Fig 1. DISASTER MANAGEMENT CYCLE

Disaster preparedness is defined as a continuous and integrated

process involving a wide range of activities and resources from
multi-sectorial sources. (Disaster Preparedness Training
Programme; International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies, IFRCRCS, 2005). In order that disaster
preparedness is undertaken with rewarding outcomes, those
involved in the process must approach it from a mitigative,
response, recovery and business continuity perspective. That is,
when considering disaster preparedness the phases of
emergency management must be looked at carefully.
A.) Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
Natural hazards need not be natural disasters. Preventive action
is possible, especially when advance knowledge of the nature

and occurrence of such hazards are available to the general

public. Human vulnerability is the relative lack of capacity of a
person or community to anticipate, cope with, resist and
recover from the impact of a hazard. Factors that increase
human vulnerability to disasters include rapid urbanization,
population growth, and lack of knowledge about how to
effectively resist the effects of disasters and poverty. Of all the
factors, poverty is perhaps at the root of what makes most
people vulnerable to the impact of most hazards. An
understanding of human vulnerability provides us with an
understanding of the significance of what physical measures
should be naturally favored in the various circumstances.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) forms the pillar of disaster
preparedness, that is, it forms the action plan to be
implemented before, during and after disasters. So, what is risk
reduction? The IFRCRCS defines risk reduction as physical
measures to reduce the vulnerability and exposure of
infrastructure to natural hazards as well and to provide coping
and adaptive infrastructure in case of a disaster event.

VI.

MALIN LANDSLIDE AS A CASE STUDY

A.) MALIN
More importantly, the village Malin has been spelt in bold
letters in the list of those villages which are ecologically fragile
and are needed to be urgently preserved and have no human
interference as per a notification issued by the Ministry of
Environment & Forests in 2013 under list of State-wise,
District-wise and Taluka-wise villages in ESA (Ecologically
Sensitive Area). It has been identified by the HLWG (High
Level committee of Western Ghats)

Some DRR recommendations for countries which do not have

a robust disaster preparedness plan are: Policy, planning and
capacity building in disaster management

Physical prevention; example, building sea-walls

against storm surge or flood shelters during flood
events

Capacity building at institutional and systemic level in

disaster preparedness The above policy and planning
of physical measures designed to reduce risks will
have far reaching socio-economic and environmental
benefits that will keep the country functioning at all
levels; for example the continued provision of food,
potable water and health care and at the same time
there will be less damage to infrastructure. Examples
of DRR measures that countries can adopt into their
planning and policy are listed below: Proper planning
to mitigate flooding in flood prone areas and alternate
infrastructure for the provision of food and potable
water.

Provision of raised flood shelters as those constructed

in Bangladesh.

The improvement of water supply systems in rural

areas to provide sufficient potable water supply during
floods or droughts.

The construction and use of drainage pumps as an

example of strengthening the capacity to cope with
floods.

Fig 2. Malin Village before Landslide

B.) MALIN LANDSLIDE
The landslide struck and effectively wiped out the village of
Malin, located close to Bhimashankar in the western Ghats. It
is thought that about 40 houses were buried sadly the timing
of the landslide meant that most would have been fully
occupied and of course the darkness would have impeded any
escape. At Malin, the Government has, as usual, assured all
possible assistance, payments to compensate for every life lost
with assurance of rehabilitation of the victims. The ensuing
debates on whether the disaster was natural or man-made and
whether it could have been prevented are seen to naturally fade
after generating a lot of heat but hardly any light. The postmortem studies are more sketchy than scientific and these too
end up with piles of reports and papers, which eventually
gather dust on the table. The residents of the neighbouring
Asane village had sensed the incoming mud avalanche at Malin
by the loud noise heard at about 03:00 a.m. There were
evidences of howling wind as well, similar to the experience at
Malpa. There being no early warning system in place, Malin
too did not receive attention until a bus driver encountered the
devastated landscape at 07:30 a.m. and the Manchar city

authorities got the news thereafter. NDRF personnel could

reach the site only by the afternoon. The district collector
reportedly came to know about the incident at 09:00 a.m.
Why no attempts were made to prevent abuse of land, educate
people on the perceived threat and on the dos and donts,
restore ecological stability of the area and disallow nonengineered dressing of the slopes for agriculture? Was it
difficult for the Government to keep a tight check on the felling
of trees, abuse of land and stone quarrying in the area,
especially when landslides have been a common occurrence in
this part of the district? Only last year, the neighbouring village
of Kolthawadi was hit by a landslide. Whenever landslide
disasters strike, we rush to lean on fixed ideas in our minds. It
has almost become ritualistic to name rainfall to explain away
cataclysmic floods an devastating landslide events without
even attempting to understand the slope dynamics. We can
understand landslides only by systematic geotechnical,
geomorphologic,
hydrogeological
and
seismic
characterization of slopes, and study of the environmental
impact of urbanization. The question to ask is: Why are
scientific investigations in our landslide-prone areas exceptions
rather than a rule? The earlier we insist on prevention by taking
recourse to scientific investigations,

Over time, seismic vibrations loosen the soft upper

layer of the soil in high areas such as Malin which
receive heavy rainfall. If, according to reports, there is
evidence of land tampering using earthmovers, then
the cracks in the soft soil spell doom for inhabitants
during an earth slip,

He, however, ruled out the suggestion that a windmill

project in Khed, 50 km from the disaster spot, had a
direct bearing on the landslide and the project had
destroyed the stability of the hills in the area.

C.) LANDSLIDE CAUSES

Amid a debate over the causes of the landslide that

devastated Malin village, 120 km from here in
Ambegaon taluka, a preliminary report by the
Geological Survey of India (GSI) has pointed to
deforestation and levelling of ground for cultivation as
the primary reasons.

Relentless rain naturally was the trigger. But the use

of heavy machinery to flatten land for agriculture may
have aggravated the crumbling of the hilltop. We
observed that the slope of the hill was flattened almost
halfway, said Ashim Kumar Saha, Head of the
Department (Central Region), GSI.

Mr. Saha, who, along with a team of experts, has been

surveying the affected area over two days, said cracks
were observed on the ground where the soil was
washed downhill during the earth slip.

Prima facie, the cracks imply an improper rainwater

drainage system. Only a detailed report can tell us
what caused the tragedy and only then can we come
up with recommendations, he said.

While agreeing that human activity had aggravated

the landslide, a city-based geologist, Satish Thigale,
marked out prolonged seismic activity in the Western
Ghats as a systemic cause.

Fig 3. Malin After Landslide.

VII.

CONCLUSION WITH THE MANAGEMENT.

We hereby come to the conclusion that in Pune or other parts

of our country. There are many places like Malin where there
are chances that the natural disaster like landslide can take
place so from the above discussed their points we made a
survey study in pune and following points were discussed
A.) SURVEY
A hill in pune called as parvati paytha situated near to the
canal on sinhgad road enclosed with the huts and houses,
called as Dattawadi have settled with the population around
2000 with the intension to dwell their forever , but as it is
laid without the strong foundation, There are chances of
landslide to take place especially in the rainy season.
On the other hand there is a construction activity that is
going on near to the Dattawadi, where large amount of
excavation is done with the help of the high intensity

machines which loosens the soil and increases the chances

of landslide.

It is necessary that all the terms related to the

landslide are to be determined at the Dattawadi especially
PREPAREDNESS should be made in order to prevent the
wild destruction at this unit.

VIII.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The study for the disaster management made us to perceived

the knowledge about the disaster management, it also made us
aware about the natural disaster that can take place in our
locality so as to make ourselves prepared for it also made us to
learn the different ideas about the management when to and
how to use it at the time of the particular situation.

IX.REFERENCES
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Fig 4. Top View Of The Parvati Paytha

[6] FEMA emergency management training module 3. Accessed on 23/01/08 at

http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/downloads/is1_Unit3.pdf
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