20 June 2023
The 30 June 2022 Tupul, Manipur landslide in India
Posted by Dave Petley
The 30 June 2022 Tupul, Manipur landslide in India
On 20 June 2022, a large landslide occurred at Makhuam village, which is located in the Tupul District of Manipur in NE India [approximate location is [24.8389, 93.6276]. The landslide killed 61 people, the majority of whom were staff from the adjacent railway construction site and local people. A further 18 people were injured.
At the time of the landslide I posted an initial interpretation of the events, speculating on the basis of the landslide deposit and scar that there were two distinct phases of movement, and that failure was associated with the construction of the railway through the area.
A paper has now been published in the journal Landslides (Baruah et al. 2023) that provides an initial interpretation of this appalling landslide. This provides a proper analysis of the events. The image below, from the paper, provides an annotated interpretation of the landslide:-
Annotated image of the 30 June 2022 Tupul, Manipur landslide in India. Image from Baruah et al. (2023).
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Baruah et al. (2023) confirm that the landslide occurred in two distinct phases, the first at 12:30 am local time, and the second at 6 am. Given that many of the victims were located in a dormitory that was destroyed by the landslide, the timing of the first (larger) phase is particularly important (and unfortunate). The authors note that “a preliminary assessment by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) highlighted extensive slope cutting for the construction of the railway station” was the primary cause of the landslide. The authors also note that May and June 2022 were unusually wet, recording a total of 705.5 mm of rainfall, which is 130% higher than the mean total for these two months over the previous decade.
Thus it seems that this landslide was the classic combination of poorly designed or implemented slope excavation coupled with heavy rainfall. It once again serves to highlight the many issues at present in the development of transportation corridors in in the Himalayas in India.
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Reference
Baruah, S., Dey, C. & Sanoujam, M. Preliminary account on the 30th June 2022 Tupul, Manipur landslide of Northeast India. Landslides (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02074-y
Dave Petley is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. His blog provides commentary and analysis of landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings.
The size of those cut slopes……Doesn’t this type/extent of construction have any oversight in Manipur? Some regions appear to be an “Excavator Rodeo” free-for all.
The NFR Railway authorities, as per the times of India, called the Preliminary report of Geological Survey of India on Post Disaster Study as “Premature” and blamed wholly on the excessive rain. The question is why other adjoining slopes didn’t fail where equal rainfall was there? So definintely Slope cutting and the design parameters didn’t add up. Railway authorities should own up the responsibility and GSI, NGT and other research institutes should stand the ground and not get bogged down.