SRINAGAR: Land sinking in the Pernote area of J&K’s Ramban district on the Srinagar-Jammu highway had been triggered by the inherent geological condition of the terrain and prolonged rainfall in the region, revealed a study by the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) Dehradun in April 2024.Authorities had to relocate people of the Pernote area to safer places after the land sinking in April last year caused significant damage, destroying houses, power lines, transmission towers, road connectivity and water supply.A three-member team of scientists from WIHG Dehradun conducted a detailed geological investigation in and around the area after receiving a notice from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in November 2024.According to WIHG report, the landslide took place along this transect at Pernote village. “At the site location of the landslide, slide materials consist mostly of purple mudstones and sheared and fractured clasts of sub-mature to mature sandstones. The landslide affected area measures about 0.60 sq km; 1.25 km in length, 650m width and height of 450m to 500m,” the report read.“The overburden of the slope is made up of clasts of unconsolidated and heterogeneous rock fragments, which lack cohesion generated by old landslides. The nature of the landslide is debris slide. At Pernote and its adjacent area, it is observed that during heavy rainfall most of the infiltration through these water sensitive lithologies (alternation of mudstones, siltstones, and sandstones) usually oozes out as seepage,” it stated.“A number of old landslide scars are observed in the slope where the present landslide occurred. Ramban area including Pernote village falls in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir which is located in a seismically active zone (Zone IV-V as per India’s seismic zonation). However, no such geological phenomena e.g., seismic activity, have been noticed or reported anywhere till now in the landslide-affected area,” the study further stated.On what triggered the land sinking, the WIHG study reveals that the inherent geological condition of the terrain material forming the slope is the main factor for the landslide that took place at Pernote village on April 25, 2024.“The landslide occurred at the footwall blocks of Murree Thrust where the rocks are highly sheared and fractured that are very friable. The slope is made up of alternation of mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone. These intervening layers of mudstone in between the lithologies make the slope prone to landslides. Mudstone is often very soft and breaks up easily,” it said.
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