Slope Stabilization in Challenging Terrains of Himalayas and Konkan Region

India has a diversified topography ranging from high range mountains to plains and coastlines. Landslides are one of the most common and widespread natural hazards that affect at least 15% of the land area of our country. Among the various natural inherent and external factors, rainfall is the most common factor which triggers a landslide. Most of the times the protection and slope stabilization works in landslides are very challenging task due to the involvement of complexity in terms of geology, terrain, climatic conditions and construction difficulties. Landslides distribution is not confined to the only hilly or mountainous areas rather it can be found in coastal areas and offshore too. The paper is walking through few diversified landslide case studies from Himalayan and Konkan region. Landslides in Himalaya are a perennial problem. The problem at most of the landslide locations are flow of overburden material from uphill slope on to the valley side, surface runoff, formation of natural channels, climatic changes, heavy rainfall, toe erosion due to flow of the river etc. Mitigation/protection works are proposed based on site specific problems. Landslides are not uncommon phenomena in Western ghat/Konkan regional on the steep slopes overlooking the Konkan coast characterized by a lateratic cap, which is highly landslide prone. The paper presents the major causative forces of landslides, landslide/slope stabilization/mitigation measures, significance of proper drainage measures, design and analysis aspects various instrumentation and monitoring techniques for slope stabilization through various case studies.