Shimla’s iconic landmarks including The Ridge and the historic Vice Regal Lodge which is now the Indian Institute of Advanced studies are developing cracks as the hill slopes are gradually giving way. Experts have attributed this to anthropogenic intervention in slopes & concentrated rainfall.
Carbon and greenhouse emissions coupled with climate change could have acted as agents but to a large extent the precarious state that Shimla finds itself in is man made.
Scientist Vikram Gupta of the Himalayan Geology Institute who was on the NGT ( National Green Tribunal )panel that recommended decongesting Shimla and stopping construction activity in 18 green zones said ” The state government ignored the NGT’s orders. I dread the day a major earthquake hits Shimla.”
The government has challenged the NGT order and the matter is pending in the Supreme court which had this to say. “We will examine the final Shimla development plan keeping in mind the balance to be maintained between development and environment. Unplanned development and encroachments without measures to protect the environment are ruining cities, making them prone to flooding , landslides and traffic congestions.”
Concrete houses built on sloping hills without proper drainage and steel reinforcement are like cluster bombs ready to explode together at the drop of a hat.
The lower slopes of Shimla like Krishna Nagar are debris of big buildings built on higher ridges. This debris settled in a hill formation over decades giving the illusion of a firm strata. Excessive rainfall coupled with faulty or open drainage led to the loosening of these slopes and the resulting cascading disaster.
With masons acting like engineers & Architects and the town planners and MC succumbing to the builder lobby the recipe for disaster is complete
Different norms for different people is the order of the day.Thus you have 6 to 7 storey structures on the hill slopes as against the prescribed norm of two & a half storey recommended by the NGT. The IDP ( Interim Development Plan) of 1979 has been amended 34 times to appease and legitimize the illegal constructions.
The erstwhile summer capital of the British which was selected by the British for it’s salubrious climate and was meant to withstand a few thousand people is finally wilting under the weight of concrete, grit and mortar after withstanding it’s weight for several years.
99% of Shimla is in zone 4 ( severe intensity zone) and with the loosening of the hill slopes even a minor quake will have a devastating effect.
Iconic landmarks like the Ridge have developed wide cracks which is a cause of concern as it has a huge reservoir in it’s underbelly and any breach would be disastrous for the main town.
Yogendra Mohan Gupta an environmentalist and a petitioner in the NGT judgement of 2017 that banned all construction in Shimla said that in case of a landslide caused by heavy rain this reservoir could break resulting in flash floods that could wipe out central Shimla.
The choc-o-block construction on the hill slopes where buildings are like bread loaves perched one on top of the other is a frightening sight .
According to Sengupta Shimla has become the most devastation prone city in the entire western Himalayas due to unchecked growth. “Shimla is a high intensity earthquake zone, a landslide zone and a torrential rain zone burdened with massive unregulated illegal construction. The town may collapse like a pack of cards,” he said.
The queen still shimmers & glitters at night but behind the shimmering facade is a catastrophy waiting to happen.
