Eighteen dead after bus hit by landslide in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Eighteen people have died and several more have been injured after a landslide hit a bus in the Bilaspur District of Himachal Pradesh, India, on Tuesday 7 October 2025. The incident happened at about 6.30 pm local time, with a large section of the side of a hill giving way following days of heavy rain, and sweeping the bus, which held between 30 and 35 people at the time, from the road. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

Rescue workers searching for survivors after a landslide swept a bus from a road in Himachal Pradesh State, India, on Tuesday 7 October 2025. National Disaster Response Force/Associated Press.

Mountainous areas of Himachal Pradesh (which is most of the state) are notoriously prone to landslides, particularly during the monsoon season, which typically lasts from July to September, when very high rainfall levels can trigger many such events. Years such as this year, in which the monsoon lasts longer, are particularly dangerous, as the ground will have become waterlogged, and unable to absorb any more rain, leading to an increased risk of landslide and flood events. Sadly, while late rains were once a rare event, they are becoming more common as a result of global warming, which is resulting in a hotter, wetter climate in the region.

Monsoons are tropical sea breezes triggered by heating of the land during the warmer part of the year (summer). Both the land and sea are warmed by the Sun, but the land has a lower ability to absorb heat, radiating it back so that the air above landmasses becomes significantly warmer than that over the sea, causing the air above the land to rise and drawing in water from over the sea; since this has also been warmed it carries a high evaporated water content, and brings with it heavy rainfall.

In the tropical dry season, the situation is reversed, as the air over the land cools more rapidly with the seasons, leading to warmer air over the sea, and thus breezes moving from the shore to the sea (where air is rising more rapidly) and a drying of the climate. This situation is particularly intense in South Asia, due to the presence of the Himalayas. High mountain ranges tend to force winds hitting them upwards, which amplifies the South Asian Summer Monsoon, with higher winds leading to more upward air movement, thus drawing in further air from the sea.

Diagrammatic representation of wind and rainfall patterns in a tropical monsoon climate. Geosciences/University of Arizona.

See also...

Sinkhole closes Interstate 80 highway in New Jersey.

A section of the Interstate 80 highway in Morris County, New Jersey was closed to eastbound traffic after a sinkhole opened beneath it on Thursday 26 December 2024. The sinkhole, which was about 12 m across and about 12 m deep appeared close to the town of Wharton, and was first spotted at about 7.40 am local time. Engineers have excavated around the area and then backfilled the whole area with rock and concrete, and expect the highway to reopen on Monday 30 December.

A sinkhole which appeared beneath the Interstate 80 highway in Morris County, New Jersey, on 26 December 2024. WABC.

Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people, without trace. 

Repairs being carried out to the Interstate 80 highway near Wharton, New Jersey, following the opening of a sinkhole on 26 December 2024. NorthJersey.com.

On this occasion the sinkhole is thought to have been caused by the collapse of an abandoned mineshaft beneath the highway. Morris County was once home to a hundred mine, principally targeting iron ore, many of which dated back to the eighteenth century, and therefore were poorly mapped by modern standards. The last of these mines closed in 1986, but abandoned mines still occasionally cause problems, including sinkholes, in the area. The Mount Pleasant Mine, which opened in 1786 and closed in 1896 is thought to have run beneath the modern Interstate 80 highway. The mine comprised a single inclined tunnel, which averaged 2 m in width and reached over a kilometre in length and more than 424 m beneath the surface.

See also...

Eight confirmed deaths following landslide on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

Eight people have now been confirmed dead following a landslide close to the town of Torkham on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border on Tuesday 18 April 2023. The majority of the deceased are understood to be Afghan truck drivers who were cooking beside their trucks while waiting for a border crossing to open. The landslide buried about fifteen container trucks, carrying goods from Pakistan into Afghanistan, with several people being injured as well as those killed. Initial rescue attempts are understood to have been hampered by a fire triggered by the landslide crushing a gas cylinder used for cooking, while later in the week further problems were caused by heavy rainfall and a secondary landslide.

Rescue workers searching the remains of trucks destroyed by a landslide on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border on 18 April 2023. Rescue 1122 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The immediate cause of the landslide appears to have been heavy rainfall falling in the area. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. Flooding and landslides are common at this time of year in northern Pakistan, where rising temperatures at the start of summer lead to thawing snow and ice in the mountains of the region. However the area does not typically receive large amounts of rainfall at this time of year, although such events seem to be becoming more common with the changing climate.

A huge landslide on the Torkham Export Road, close to the Torkham border crossing linking Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan Armed Forces News/Twitter.

The Himalayan provinces of Pakistan are extremely prone to landslides, due to a number of active faults in the area, these being driven by the northward movement of the Indian Plate, which is pushing into Eurasia at a rate of 40 mm a year. This causes earthquakes on both plates, as well as the folding and uplift that has created the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.

Block diagram showing how the impact of the Indian Plate into Eurasia is causing uplift on the Tibetan Plateau. Jayne Doucette/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

However, the area around Torkham is not generally prone to large landslides, even at times of year when high rainfall is expected, suggesting that something else may have contributed to this event. Landslide expert Dave Petley has suggested on his blog that this may relate to road widening activity at the landslide site, which may have undermined a section of rock above an unconformity in the rockface, leading to a plane of weakness along which the rock could fail.

Google Earth images of the site of the Torkham landslide in 2016 and 2021. Dave Petley/The Landslide Blog.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter. 

Mining giant Rio Tinto forced to apologise after loosing radioactive caesium¹³⁷ capsule in the Western Australian outback.

The mining giant Rio Tinto has been forced to issue an apology to the people of Western Australia, after loosing a capsule containing a small amount of the radioactive isotope caesium¹³⁷ while it was being shipped across the state earlier this month. The capsule served as a radiation source for a device which was able to measure the density of iron within ore samples, which was being transported between the Gudai-Darti Mine, to the north of Newman and the state capital, Perth, a distance of 1400 km, by a specialist contractor brought in by Rio Tinto to undertake the job. The device was inspected at Gudai-Darti and seen to be safe on 12 January 2023, but when inspected in Perth on 16 January is was found that a gauge, one of its four mounting bolts, several screws, and the caesium¹³⁷ capsule had gone missing, apparently shaken loose by the vibration of the truck.

A member of an Incident Management Team in Western Australia which is coordinating the search for the missing radioactive capsule. Western Australia Department of Fire and Emergency Services/Reuters.

The missing capsule is described as silver in colour, 6 mm in diameter and 8 mm long, small enough to raise concerns that it could be caught in the tread of a car tire. The radiation it emits has been described as equivalent to 10 medical X-rays per hour, not threatening to anyone simply driving past, but potentially harmful to anyone remaining within 5 m of the capsule for any length of time, who could potentially suffer burns or even radiation sickness, with the potential for harm to anyone directly handling the capsule being quite high. Authorities in Western Australia are searching for the missing capsule using portable radiation survey meters, which can be mounted on vehicles, and which should be able to detect the capsule from a distance of about 20 m. This method should be able to detect the capsule if it has remained on or close to the road along which it was transported, although if it has moved from this route, for example by being caught on another vehicle, then the task will become much more difficult, and the danger of members of the public having been exposed to harmful levels of radiation much higher.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.

Fourteen people now confirmed dead following landslide in Himachal Pradesh.

Fourteen people have now been confirmed dead, and another sixteen are still missing, following a landslide in Himachal Pradesh State, India, on Wednesday 11 August 2021. The event happened on National Highway Five, close to the village of Nigulsari in Kinnaur District at about 12.30 pm, and resulted in a number of vehicles, including a crowded bus, being hit by large boulders and swept into a gorge below the road, through which the Sutlej River runs. There is thought to be little hope of finding any further survivors, with vehicles buried beneath a pile of rocks and debris 3-5 m deep and 15-30 m wide.

 

The remains of a bus which was hit by a landslide in Himachal Pradesh, India, on 11 August 2021. VV Krishnan/Firstpost.

 

Mountainous areas of Himachal Pradesh (which is most of the state) are notoriously prone to landslides, particularly during the monsoon season, which lasts from July to September, when very high rainfall levels can trigger many such events. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

 

The section of National Highway Five that was hit by a landslide in Kinnaur District, Himachal Pradesh, on 11 August 2021. CNN.

 Monsoons are tropical sea breezes triggered by heating of the land during the warmer part of the year (summer). Both the land and sea are warmed by the Sun, but the land has a lower ability to absorb heat, radiating it back so that the air above landmasses becomes significantly warmer than that over the sea, causing the air above the land to rise and drawing in water from over the sea; since this has also been warmed it carries a high evaporated water content, and brings with it heavy rainfall. In the tropical dry season the situation is reversed, as the air over the land cools more rapidly with the seasons, leading to warmer air over the sea, and thus breezes moving from the shore to the sea (where air is rising more rapidly) and a drying of the climate. This situation is particularly intense in South Asia, due to the presence of the Himalayas. High mountain ranges tend to force winds hitting them upwards, which amplifies the South Asian Summer Monsoon, with higher winds leading to more upward air movement, thus drawing in further air from the sea. 

Diagrammatic representation of wind and rainfall patterns in a tropical monsoon climate. Geosciences/University of Arizona.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter. 

Landslide kills one and injures two on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Jammu and Kashmir, India.

One person has died and two more were injured in a landslide on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Udhampur District of Jammu and Kashmir State, India, on Friday 26 March 2021. The deceased has been named as Muhammad Afroz Alam, the driver of an earthmover, who died on the spot, when his vehicle was knocked from the road into a valley below. 

 

An earthmover which was knocked from the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Jammu and Kashmir into a valley below, killing the driver on Friday 26 March 2021. GK Photo.

The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is notoriously prone to landslides, particularly during the region's monsoon season, which lasts from July to September, bringing with it extremely high levels of rainfall. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. However, on this occasion it appears that the landslide may have been triggered by human activity associated with a road-widening scheme which is intended to broaden the highway from its current two lanes to four.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.