Imkong Walling One was of the impression landslides occurred only during the monsoon. That notion came crushing down a few days back when a cliff face along the all important Dimapur-Kohima highway gave way choking the road for days. Rendered impassable, vehicles had to make a harrowing and longer detour via Niuland and Zhadima to reach Kohima from Dimapur. Expenses, fares included, doubled and business boomed briefly for small shops and hotels in Niuland as the town became a stopover enroute Kohima and beyond. A brief gain for one, it was a massive economic loss extending over five days for the state overall. Nevertheless, what must have possibly caused a landslide at such an odd time as November when the government’s favourite fall guy - the monsoon has come and gone already? Was it humans as it also happens to be another no less preferred scapegoat? It turned out to be partially true as an already fragile soil recovering from the recent monsoon battering was apparently disturbed by earth shattering detonations caused by humans. According to the NHIDCL, the culprit was the controlled blasting of the hillside to make way for the ongoing four-laning project of NH 29 between Dimapur and Kohima. Such rockslides are said to be common in road-building, especially in mountainous terrain, which brings us to the subject of geology. In school, we learnt that rocks are broadly classified into three types – metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary. To Nagaland’s disadvantage, the state’s geological structure falls in the sedimentary category, which is known to be the weakest. The implications go beyond classroom knowledge. According to geologists, the mountainous landscape we call home straddles loosely bound rocks, which when disturbed would have disastrous outcomes. The landscape nevertheless looks largely stable and it must have been so, right? Well, not entirely. To let it sink in, we have to bring ‘modernity’ into the equation. With it came development activities which include large-scale excavation of the land for roads to facilitate economic growth and development. Unfortunately, the development activities that have taken place occurred without giving much thought to the stability of the soil underneath. Add to it, uninhibited coal mining, stone quarrying and clearing of forests for timber and commercial farming without realising its impact on the stability of the soil. The harsh effects of coal mining and stone quarrying in proximity to arterial roads have been evident enough and will continue to do so. Geologists maintain these activities alongwith a number of other unchecked factors have disturbed an already fragile geology with roads becoming victim in most. The recent rockslide would have been one such instance and the several that occurred across the state during the monsoon and the years before. And going by the evident apprehension, there is no guarantee the four-lane road once complete will be immune to landslides or that landslides come only with the rains. It implies a wholehearted policy rethink, going back to the drawing board to reverse, if not, address the problem long-term.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
