Abstract
The Himalayan states are familiar with the adverse impact of extreme events like excessive precipitations, which lead to floods, flash floods, landslides, debris flow, avalanches, etc. hence the disasters. The Uttarakhand (UK) state in the Himalaya experiences a great loss of lives, livestock, properties, and natural wealth due to such calamities. On the night of 19 August 2022 (10:15 PM) and early morning of 20 August 2022 (02:15 AM), heavy rain together with a cloud burst triggered flash floods in the Maldevta area of the Dehradun district, which led to large-scale destruction of the area. A prolonged heavy downpouring on 20 August 2022 at Maldevta and surrounding areas damaged the channel and bank of the Song and Baldi rivers for a 15 km stretch between Sarkhet and Thano, and completely washed away Sarkhet (807 m asl), Kumalta (787 m asl) and lower portion of Maldevta town (723 m asl).
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Acknowledgement
We are grateful to the Director, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun, India for providing facilities and ample support to carry out this work. The Dept. of Sci. & Tech. (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, for necessary funding. The reviewers are also thanked for their views and suggestions. KS acknowledges the SERB-DST for providing him with the J.C. Bose National Fellowship.
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Sain, K., Mehta, M., Kumar, V. et al. A Climatic Surprise–Slope Instability Triggered by Heavy Rain in Maldevta Region, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on 20 August, 2022. J Geol Soc India 99, 317–320 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2313-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2313-1