Alert ! Landslide !!!

This is the time of the year that Nandi Hills changes from its grey rocky colour to lush green with the monsoon rains. Last week we had very heavy rains - in particular the downpour that began on Tuesday continued till dawn on Wednesday.

Aftermath of Nandi Hills landslide

Building near a hill, one is always concerned about the possibility of land slides - I woke up on a very wet Wednesday morning to learn that a landslide occurred in Brahmagiri range and the road connecting Nandi Hills was washed away. Thankfully there was no loss of life. While access to our development was still available, I learnt to my dismay that about half the northern boundary wall that separated our site from the Channagiri Hill, had collapsed due to the pressure of the rain water and the relatively, inadequate foundations of this decade old wall. To mitigate this, the developer had started work on a robust, concrete retaining wall however, it was still, under construction.

Old wall & retaining wall rebar prior to wall collapse

The old wall had collapsed onto the rebar that would be the skeleton of the new retaining wall, so the retaining wall would need rework too.

New retaining wall rebar damaged by debris

Collapsed wall sections

This collapse reinforced my view that we needed to take robust measures to prevent such mishaps - structurally sound, retaining walls, rain water drains to divert water run off from the slopes and a continued state of awareness about any soil erosion or drain water pressure on the slopes.

...Celebrating India's independence

...Age is just a very large number !