Analysis of Disaster events in District Almora, Kumaun Himalaya, Uttarakhand

Abstract

The Kumaun Himalaya region is too sensitive to natural disasters. Several natural and human-induced disasters regularly strike the study area almost every year, causing loss of life, agricultural land, forest, settlement, and millions of rupee of property. In the study area, natural disasters, e.g., landslide, cloud burst, earthquake, flood, mass wasting, storm etc occur naturally but human activities have also triggered disaster events, e.g., forest fire, landslide along with construction sites, flood due to deforestation etc. The disaster events affect all the forms of life, e.g., human beings, animals, plants etc. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the disaster events in district Almora, Uttarakhand. For this purpose, the disaster-sensitive zonation maps have been constructed for forest fires, landslides, earthquake and road construction sites mainly based on earlier disaster events using GIS models and techniques. Due to changing climate and human activities, the frequency of disaster events has increased in the study area. In this study, a detailed disaster mitigation strategy has been worked out which may be helpful for the management of disaster events in the future.