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Slope instability is a big challenge for the population in mountainous regions. It poses a threat to life, economy, and infrastructure. For the safety of people, various prevention and precautions are taken and hence many scientific studies are going on. In the present study, the stability of the Karmi landslides zone, Bageshwar, Uttarakhand, India is assessed. Karmi village lies quite close to the northern border of India and the excavated roads are the only means of commute. The area lies in a tectonically active lesser Himalayan zone with high relief. Slope geometry was extracted using a total station, and seven different slope geometries were plotted. Soil and rock mass samples were taken and evaluated from various field and laboratory investigations. The direct shear test was performed to assess the friction angle and cohesion of the soil and rock mass. Numerical simulations viz., finite element analysis and probabilistic analysis have been applied on all seven slope sections and found that the mean and median safety factor of all the modeled slopes was 0.78 and 0.81, respectively. The study ascertains that the whole area to be quite vulnerable to failure, especially during rains, since the pore pressure build-up diminishes the shear strength of the slope forming material. Possible mitigation measures have been suggested based on the examined instability of the hill slopes.

The present research details the remote sensing, geotechnical and seismic aspects of hill slopes in Lower Tons river valley, Garhwal Himalaya, India. The region is a part of Lesser Himalaya and holds religious and strategic importance. The studied span has been a site of slope failures in the past. The remote sensing investigation was used to characterize the geomorphological and hydrological attributes of the area. This information was used to delineate vulnerable locations. Along the road stretch of about 80 km, 80 tests were conducted to ascertain the soil particle distribution and plasticity indices; and 33 tests for shear strength properties. Using the geotechnical parameters, numerical simulation was conducted for two slopes of angle, 40 and 50 , with a consistent height of 50 m. Most of the slopes were stable at an angle of 40 , however, 30.30% (FEM) and 24.24% (FDM) of the analysed slopes failed for the steeper slope. Eventually, the pseudo-static analysis was done. The inclusion of seismicity increased the incidences of slope failure by 33.33% and 39.39% for the slope with an inclination of 40 and 50 , respectively. Afterwards, the slopes were optimized for their critical angle as a function of the safety factor.

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