Overview of Vulnerability Floods and Avalanche Hazard in Himachal Pradesh

The state of Himachal Pradesh has been facing widespread and extensive damages almost every year because of natural hazards flood, cloud burst, flash floods, earth quake, landslides and droughts etc. which have been taking its toll of human lives, cattle heads, destruction of public utilities, roads, bridges, footpaths, culverts, landslides and washing away of drinking water supply and irrigation schemes and damage to public and private properties making a dependent into the already fragile economy of the state. The losses sustained are so serve that relief and restoration operations without adequate financial resources are not possible despite best efforts of the state to cope up with the emergent situation out of the available scanty resources. This paper focuses on analyzing floods and avalanche hazard in Himachal Pradesh and also describes the main risk reduction strategies during floods hazards. The universe of the study is very wide and vast. Therefore due to constraints of resources and time only floods and avalanche hazard in Himachal Pradesh & Main hazards Risk Reduction strategies for floods and avalanche hazards will be study. In the present paper the data was collected through primary and secondary sources. The primary data has been collected by observation and field survey method. The Secondary data was collected from records, reports, relief manual, action plan and memorandum of the state revenue department and other department which are concerned with disaster management. Newspapers, magazines, journals, books, articles and website have been utilized.