One of the most important sites of Buddhist worship is the Tawang Monastery in Himachal Pradesh in northern India. This site, which is home to an estimated 450 lamas and houses many ancient scriptures and other manuscripts. It was founded in 1681, and consists of a collection of many and large small buildings, as shown below (image from here): The extraordinary hilltop location of the site is shown in the …

As yesterday, this is a brief review of the state of play with the three substantial landslide and flood crises in Asia. 1. PakistanThe flood wave continues to work its way down the Indus, and is now in the Province of Sindh.   As forecast, heavy rainfall exacerbated the situation yesterday, with totals of over 100 mm in some areas of the province. Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa also saw falls of 30 mm …

It is rather difficult to keep up with all the landslides occurring in Asia at present, so for now I’ll provide a brief review of the current situation across the three major areas affected: 1. PakistanThe situation in Pakistan becomes increasingly desperate.  Further heavy rainfall in the mountains in the northwest has meant increased landslide and flood occurrence, and a huge reduction in the aid effort.  The FFD hydrographs in …

Thanks to several people for the heads up on this.  Various Indian news agencies are reporting that the town of Leh in Ladakh, Indian controlled Kashmir was hit by a series of debris flows / flas floods triggered by a cloudburst.  The reported death toll is currently reported to be at least 50, and may increase substantially. This Panoramio image gives a fairly good idea of what Leh is like:

The true magnitude of the disaster in Pakistan is now becoming clear – this appears to be the country’s equivalent of Hurricane Katrina.  It has to be hoped that lessons are learnt both within the country and by the international community in terms of disaster risk reduction there. In 2007 the World Health Organisation produced a flood potential map for Pakistan, which I reproduce below: The flood wave is travelling …

A good new rockfall video has been posted on Youtube, collected in the Pangi Valley of Himachal Pradesh in India:

AP is reporting that a landslide in S India has killed 39 people. The landslide occurred in the Ooty and Coonoor region of Tamil Nadu states, hitting 300 mud huts. The report quotes a “state flood control official” as saying that 14 bodies were recovered on Monday and a further 25 today. Tamil Nadu is in the very south of India. The TRMM landslide warning system has this region as …

1. PhilippinesTyphoon Parma (known as Pepeng in the Philippines) has churned its way across the northern part of Luzon in the Philippines. Fortunately, its track took it north of the most vulnerable area, which is the first bit of good news for a while: However, early reports are that the storm has triggered some landslides: “Rains in Benguet province set off landslides in which at least 12 people were killed, …

I am struggling to keep up with the natural disasters at the moment. The main point of this post is to highlight the continued threat of Typhoon Parma to the northern Philippines. The current track forecast has it making landfall in the next day or so in the northern part of Luzon. The forecasts are still that it will stall as it makes its way across that area – this …

Regular readers will know that I occasionally highlight the great work being undertaken by a small group of concerned citizens, Save the Hills, to raise awareness of landslides in Darjeeling District in northern India. This work is profiled in a blog, Visions of Hell, run by Praful Rao. As this is an area affected by the SW Monsoon, the summer is the main landslide season in this region. Although the …