After a preliminary survey of the landslide-hit Malin village and surrounding terrain, geologists of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) on Monday ruled out the possibility of deforestation in the area having contributed to last Wednesday’s landslide, even as the toll in the natural disaster mounted to 134 late in the night.
“We did not see any large trees in the hillock slopes adjoining Malin village. Nor we did we see any evidence –in the form of remnants of cut trees — to suggest that deforestation contributed to the landslide at Malin. From our preliminary study, we surmise that the landslide was a natural calamity than anything else,” Asim Kumar Saha, Deputy Director and Head of Department of the Central Region GSI, told The Pioneer.
Saha, who was part of a team of geologists belonging to the GSI that surveyed Malin and surrounding areas during the weekend, said, “The slopes adjoining Malin are very steep. We have a reason to believe that the rocks on the slopes might have withered away over the years. Following the incessant rains, the withered rocks and loose soil cover might have flowed down onto central portion of the village which was right below the slopes”.
“The hutments could not withstand the force of the mudflow coming from the slopes and hence were either washed off or buried along with the people who were inside their houses as it was early in the morning and there was incessant rain outside,” Saha said.
Saha’s observations should be seen in the backdrops of reports quoting local people and activists that had suggested that excessive tree felling along the slopes adjoining the Malin village might have caused the July 30 landslide.
“A closer view of the site also gave a thought that the site is not totally free from such mud flow, as similar loose saturated soil with debris is lying on the edges of the slide that had already occurred and it can give up if the rainfall continues,” the GSI said on Monday in a separate statement issued after its team’s visit to Malin.
Apart from Saha, the team of experts that visited Malin comprised GSI’s Director General Harbans Singh, his other team members, Deputy Director General, Central Region Mission-IV Shekar Sarkar and his counterpart from Maharashtra Venkatswamy.
“The slopes adjacent to Malin are precarious and down below a few houses are present and many people, as also visitors, stay there. If rainfall continues for another three to four days, there is further possibility of further sliding in the adjacent portions of the slide that took place last week,” the GSI release stated.
The GSI’s team of experts has among other things advised the rescue teams operating in Malin currently to evacuate houses adjacent to the landslide-affected area and to post observers at slopes to check constantly if there is movement of mud or slurry so that the people working below could be shifted to safer places in the event o f a recurring slide.