case study on recent landslides in india

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Study finds rains that led to deadly Indian landslides were made worse by climate change

Rescuers on their second day of mission following Tuesday’s landslides recover the body of a victim at Chooralmala, Wayanad district, Kerala state, India, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A rescuer walks past uprooted trees, a damaged car and other debris on their second day of mission following Tuesday’s landslides at Chooralmala, Wayanad district, Kerala state, India, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Indian army soldiers set up a prefabricated bridge for across the river rescue operations following Tuesday’s landslides at Chooralmala, Wayanad district, Kerala state, India, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

People stand in a queue to check the identity of the victims at a morgue on the second day of the rescue mission following Tuesday’s landslides at Meppadi, Wayanad district, Kerala state, India, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

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BENGALURU, India (AP) — The heavy rains that resulted in landslides killing hundreds in southern India last month were made worse by human-caused climate change, a rapid analysis by climate scientists found Tuesday.

The study by the World Weather Attribution, a group of scientists who use established climate models to quickly determine whether human-caused climate change played a part in extreme weather events around the world, found that the 15 centimeters (5.91 inches) of rain that fell in a 24-hour period July 29-30 was 10% more intense because of global warming. The group expects further emissions of planet-heating gases will result in increasingly frequent intense downpours that can lead to such disasters.

Nearly 200 people were killed and rescuers are still searching for more than 130 missing people in Kerala state, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations.

“The Wayanad landslides are another catastrophic example of climate change playing out in real time,” said Mariam Zachariah, a climate scientist at Imperial College of London and one of the authors of the rapid study.

Last month’s rainfall that caused the landslides was the third-heaviest in Kerala state since India’s weather agency began record-keeping in 1901.

Last year over 400 people died due to heavy rains in the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. Multiple studies have found that India’s monsoon rains have become more erratic as a result of climate change. “Until the world replaces fossil fuels with renewable energy, monsoon downpours will continue to intensify, bringing landslides, floods and misery to India,” said Zachariah.

India’s southern state Kerala has been particularly vulnerable to climate change-driven extreme weather. Heavy rainfall in 2018 flooded large parts of the state, killing at least 500 people, and a cyclonic storm in 2017 killed at least 250 people including fishers who were at sea near the state’s coasts.

“Millions of people are sweltering in deadly heat in the summer. Meanwhile, in monsoons, heavier downpours are fuelling floods and landslides, like we saw in Wayanad,” said Arpita Mondal, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and one of the study’s authors. Earlier this year another study by the same group found that deadly heat waves that killed at least 100 people in India were found to have been made at least 45 times more likely due to global warming.

India, the world’s most populous country , is among the highest current emitters of planet-heating gases and is also considered to be among the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate impacts.

“When it rains now, it rains heavily. In a warmer world, these extreme events will be more frequent and we cannot stop them. However, we can try to establish early warning systems for landslides and also avoid any construction activity in landslide-prone regions,” said Madhavan Rajeevan, a retired senior official at India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences who is from Kerala state.

Tuesday’s study also recommended minimizing deforestation and quarrying, while improving early warning and evacuation systems to help protect people in the region from future landslides and floods. The study said the Wayanad region had seen a 62% decrease in forest cover and that that may have contributed to increased risks of landslides during heavy rains.

“Even heavier downpours are expected as the climate warms, which underscores the urgency to prepare for similar landslides in northern Kerala,” said Maja Vahlberg, climate risk consultant at Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre who was also an author of the study.

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• Published: 13 July 2022

The tale of three landslides in the Western Ghats, India: lessons to be learnt

• R. S. Ajin 1 ,
• D. Nandakumar 2 ,
• A. Rajaneesh 3 ,
• T. Oommen 4 ,
• Yunus P. Ali 5 &
• K. S. Sajinkumar 3  

Geoenvironmental Disasters volume  9 , Article number:  16 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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In recent years, landslides have become a typical monsoon calamity in the Western Ghats region of Kerala, India. In addition to property damage, heavy rainfall (36% above normal) and multiple landslides (4728) killed 48 people in 2018. This tendency continued throughout the monsoon seasons of 2019, 2020, and 2021, resulting in the deaths of over 100 people. Anomalous precipitation is ascribed to the frequent development of low-pressure in the surrounding oceans. Using ground real data and satellite imagery, we evaluated the features of three large landslides in the state of Kerala, which occurred during the monsoon season of 2021. Our investigation found that the Kokkayar landslide was triggered by anthropogenic-related agricultural activities, the Plappally landslide by geomorphic and tectonic processes as well as human involvement, and the Kavali landslide by forest fragmentation with dense vegetation on thin soil. The triggering mechanism for all three of these landslides, however, is the intense rainfall of 266 mm in less than 24 h. Thus, an accurate and precise forecast of rainfall can be used to define a threshold for an early warning, which will be vital for saving lives.

Introduction

Catastrophic landslides have become a common monsoonal phenomenon in India’s southwest state of Kerala, which is located in the foothills of the prominent mountain chain, the Western Ghats. The anomalous rainfall of 2018, which was about 36% more than the normal rainfall (Vishnu et al. 2019 ), triggered 4728 landslides (Hao et al. 2020 ) and killed 48 people. These landslides occurred in a single storm-event i.e., 16th August 2018. The following years saw further landslides, with the monsoon season of 2019 witnessing disastrous landslides such as the one at Puthumala, which killed 17 people, and the Kavalappara, which killed another 59 people (Sajinkumar and Oommen 2020 ; Wadhawan et al. 2020 ). Both these landslides occurred on 8th August 2019. The Pettimudi landslide of 6th August 2020 was the most tragic one that killed 70 people and devastated several hutments in a tea plantation region (Achu et al. 2021 ; Sajinkumar and Oommen 2021 ). Year 2021 also experienced cataclysmic landslides on 16th October with the most disastrous ones being at Kokkayar in Idukki district and Plappally and Kavali, near Koottickal in Kottayam district. All these devastating landslides that occurred since 2018 showed an uneven geographic distribution (Fig.  1 a, b), pointing to the possibility that many parts of the Western Ghats are susceptible to landslides, though these landslides are located along the same valley (Fig.  1 c). In this study, we narrate the ground real data and interpretation of high-resolution remotely sensed images of the three landslides- Kokkayar, Plappally and Kavali (Fig.  2 , a, b, c) that occurred in 2021. We also employed ethnographic techniques, such as in-depth interviews with elderly impacted individuals, to learn about their shared experiences. These three landslides are amongst the tens of landslides in the vicinity of the study area (Fig.  3 ). The reason for selecting these three landslides is because of their catastrophic nature resulting in many human casualties. We believe that the narrative of these three landslides applies to other landslides that occurred in the immediate vicinity of this area.

(Source: Google Earth) ( b ) Study area with elevation map draped over hill shade map showing major landslides since 2018 (Elevation data is ALOS PALSAR) ( c ) Google Earth image showing the spatial distribution of these three landslides along a valley

Location map ( a ) South India

Field photos of ( a ) Kokkayar landslide ( b ) Plappally landslide ( c ) Kavali landslide

A distant view of the hills in the study area showing several landslides

Site and situation of the landslides

Kokkayar landslide.

Kokkayar landslide (9°34′21''N; 76°53′13''E) of Peermade taluk in the Idukki district of Kerala has killed seven people and completely destroyed seven houses. The dimension of this landslide is 500 m (length) × 40 m (avg. width) × 1 m (avg. thickness). Rubber plantations predominantly occupy the area with intermittent clusters of mixed vegetation. The area is utilized for agriculture through terrace cultivation with the cut slope protected by rubble masonry wall. Rain pits were constructed on this slope. Houses are constructed by the cut and fill method but without any support in the cut slope. Most of the houses have dug wells and the depth to water level is shallow (< 2 m) whereas during the landslide these were found overflowing (as per local witness), pointing to the fully saturated column of soil. Numerous springs spout from this area (Fig.  4 a). This spouting phenomenon existed before landslides because dwellings have drains to flush away storm water (Fig.  4 b). These observations indicate that a seasonal first and/or second-order stream flows through this area, which might have been modified during the course of agriculture and/or habitation. A few fresh gullies have been formed, to which water is now confined.

a Spouting of spring at Kokkayar landslide ( b ) A demolished house having provisions for draining storm water ( c ) A highly-weathered joint in the country hornblende biotite gneiss ( d ) Soil profile showing dislodged material, lateritic soil, saprock and weathered bedrock

The in-depth interviews with the local people revealed that the vegetation, mainly rubber trees were clear-felled after slaughter tapping a few years prior to the event. Contour bunding and rain-pits were made prior to replanting the rubber saplings. These interventions seem to have taken place ignoring the natural hydrological requirement of letting the first/second order streams to have its free flow channels. Such interventions may have contributed to destabilizing of soil on the slopes.

The area is characterized by outcrops of hornblende biotite gneiss. The general trend of this foliated rock is 173°/35 W. The preponderance of feldspar in this rock and its subsequent alteration through weathering has resulted in the formation of clay. The rock is highly jointed, and weathering is found to be extensive along these joints (Fig.  4 c). The crown of the landslide is occupied by bouldery outcrops of this rock with no soil cover. Hence, during monsoon, all the water in the crown part has surcharged the immediately downslope column of lateritic soil causing an increase in pore-water pressure. Near the flanks of the landslide, the soil profile shows dislodged soil followed by lateritic soil of 1 m thickness and another 1 m thick saprolite (Fig.  4 d). This is further followed by bedrock. The dislodged material was finally dumped into the Pullakayar, a tributary of Manimala River.

Plappally landslide

Plappally landslide (9°37′3''N; 76°52′21''E) in Kanjirapally taluk of Kottayam district has killed four people and demolished two buildings. This landslide of 500 m (length) × 20 (avg. width) × 1 m (avg. thickness) was initiated in a rubber plantation whereas its runout stretches through areas of different land use types. In the Google Earth image (before landslide), the upslope in which the landslide occurred is confined is a truncated spur and its right boundary is marked by a straight lower-order river course, indicating a lineament (Fig.  5 a). Due to the broader surface area of this spur, the run-off zone is more extensive. The storm water when crossing the barren rock outcrop, situated downslope, facilitates sudden surcharge to the thin veneer of soil lying immediately downslope. It is in this zone the recent landslide was initiated. The surcharge zone can be well seen in the high-resolution (3 m) False Colour Composite (FCC) of Planet Lab (Fig.  5 b). The truncated spur together with the bulged foothill suggests this as a paleo-landslide, within which the recent landslide occurred.

a Google Earth image showing a distant view of Plappally landslide showing a suspected lineament, remnants of paleolandslide and its associated truncated spur ( b ) 3 m resolution FCC of Planet Lab image showing the landslide runout and its surcharge area ( c ) Storm water gushing through the uprooted house location ( d ) The ruins of the devastated house, which was constructed along the course of a lower-order stream ( e ) Seepage along the joints of hornblende biotite gneiss

This landslide is also confined to a lower-order stream course. The two buildings, which were destroyed, were constructed precisely on the river course. Water gushes through this during the monsoon (Fig.  5 c), whereas it is dry during the non-monsoon season (Fig.  5 d) showing its seasonal nature. But seepage can be seen along the joints of the country rock, hornblende biotite gneiss (Fig.  5 e). Here again, in the upper slope, where the houses stood before the landslide, plantation with young rubber trees existed, which indicates a similar influencing factor like at Kokkayar.

Kavali landslide

Six people died and one house was demolished by the Kavali landslide, which is 250 m (length) × 15 (avg. width) × 2 m (avg. thickness) in dimension. Hornblende biotite gneiss is the country rock, which is highly weathered and jointed. The attitude of this highly foliated rock is 315°/80NE. Here too, spring water is tapped for domestic purposes. The destroyed house was constructed in a cut-slope, but the cut-slope is still retained after the landslide. The cut-slope profile exhibits lateritic soil, saprolite, and weathered bedrock. The area is characterized by thick vegetation when compared to the sparse vegetation in the adjacent area. This thick mixed vegetation with rubber plantation is the major crop, followed by nutmeg, arecanut, and teak. Google Earth image (Fig.  6 a) also revealed thick vegetation. A Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) map was created using the high-resolution Planet Lab image to understand the area’s land use. NDVI revealed that the landslide occurred in a densely vegetated area when compared to other areas consisting of a wide variety of land uses like moderate vegetation, grassland, barren outcrop, and built-up. Usually, landslides are less reported in densely vegetated areas (cf. Alcantara-Ayala et al. 2006 ; Reichenbach et al. 2014 ). In contrast to this, a recent study by Lan et al. ( 2020 ) suggests that a densely vegetated slope decreases its stability. This study has been concurred with by the recent findings of Hao et al. ( 2022 ) wherein most of the landslides that occurred in Kerala during 2018 are spatially associated with forest land. However, a closer look at Fig.  6 a, b reveals forest fragmentation and breaking-off of the contiguity of the forest canopy, creating scattered and fragmented forest islands. Studies reveal that such a process could compromise landscape integrity (Ramachandra and Kumar 2011 ; Batar et al. 2021 ).

a Google Earth image showing a distant view of Kavali landslide and forest fragmentation ( b ) NDVI of Kavali area depicting dense vegetation in landslide occurred area

The Western Ghats, especially its southern part encompassing the entire state of Kerala, witness landslides often during monsoon season. Since 2018, the noteworthy feature of the monsoon has been that it triggers landslides during the sporadic high-intensity rainfall (cf. Vishnu et al. 2019 , 2020 ; Yunus et al. 2021 ; Sajinkumar et al. 2022 ). Though several studies have been conducted in this region, and measures suggested were not adopted, we present here specific omnipresent reasons that facilitate landslides in this region.

Introspection of land use policy

The recent landslide susceptibility map of Kerala (cf. Sajinkumar and Oommen 2021 ; Escobar-Wolf et al. 2021 ) shows an area of 3300 and 2886 km 2 as highly and moderately susceptible to landslides, respectively. It will be an arduous task to implement stringent measures such as habitation- and construction-free zones in these areas. However, some of the landslide-facilitating practices that are common, may be inadvertently so, can be averted. Kerala is predominantly an agrarian state, and the general agricultural land use seen are cash crops, with rubber plantations occupying the midlands and tea, coffee and cardamom in the highlands. All the three landslides occurred in the midlands, especially where rubber plantation dominates the land use. The construction of rain pits is a common practice in almost all rubber estates. Major disturbance to the slope stability occurs when fully matured rubber trees are slaughtered after their life span of ~ 20 years, and fresh saplings are planted in a broad pit of 1 m 3 size. Rain pits are also dug here. The method of stubble mulching is not practiced here and large area of land will be disturbed when the trees are uprooted using machinery. Hence, avoiding rain pits, planting pits, and promoting stubble mulching practice will help reduce the probability of landslide occurrences. Avoiding rain pits and planting pits in susceptible landslide areas will help increase run-off rather than infiltration. In addition, all agricultural techniques on the hilly slope affects the lower-order drainage, by obstructing it with rubble-masonry walls, redirecting it to a more hazardous slope, or by constructing houses. These lower-order courses, except in thickly vegetated forest areas, are usually seasonal, and during monsoon season, the normal flow of water is thus disturbed by these practices. Hence, a stringent land use policy to avoid such practices in agricultural fields is a pressing requirement.

Rainfall- the sole triggering factor

As mentioned, these three landslides were also triggered by a sporadic-high intensity rainfall of > 266 mm in a single day (Fig.  7 ) but with a 5-day antecedent rainfall of only 109.9 mm. The comparatively higher rainfall of 48.8 (2nd October), 45.4 (8th October and 69.6 mm (11th October) might have saturated the soil column and the 16th October anomalous event was sufficient enough to trigger landslides. In order to limit the risk of rainfall-induced landslides, an accurate and exact rainfall forecast that allows for the issuance of early warnings based on the rainfall threshold of the area is essential (Weidner et al. 2018 ). The sparse density of rain gauges and manual operation methods make things difficult. For e.g., the rain gauge station nearest to these three landslides is Kanjirapally, approximately 10 km away from this landslide, which is grossly inadequate to capture the micro-climatic conditions of the susceptible areas. Moreover, this rain gauge station is a manual one with daily rainfall recording on the succeeding day at 8.30 am ( www.imd.gov.in ). Having automated rain gauges that report rain information near real-time will be critical for developing early warning systems.

Hyetograph of Kanjirappally rain gauge, which is the nearest to the landslide affected area. Note the prominent 266 mm rainfall on the landslide day

Soil thickness and soil-rock interface plane

The hilly area of the entire state of Kerala is characterized by a thin veneer of unconsolidated soil, resting above the massive Precambrian crystalline rock except for plateau regions like Munnar and Nelliyampathy (Sajinkumar and Anbazhagan 2015 ). Usually, the glide plane of the landslides will be the contact plane of these two litho-units (cf. Istiyanti et al. 2021 ). Thus, wherever the landslide occurs, the bedrock will be exposed, which can be seen in all these three landslides. Hence, along with the understanding of landslide susceptibility, the soil thickness of the area and the saturation capacity of that soil column have to be investigated. The contact between these two litho-units is stable in a plain or gentler slope (Fig.  8 a) whereas it will be in a meta-stable position when in a steep slope (cf. Getachew and Meten 2021 ; Puente-Sotomayor et al. 2021 ) (Fig.  8 b). This equilibrium will be lost when the soil column is saturated by water during the monsoon season (Fig.  8 c).

Sketch depicting the contact between unconsolidated soil and massive crystalline Precambrian rocks along the Western Ghats part of Kerala. ( a–c ) shows the different stages of stability of these two lithounits

The three landslides that occurred on 16th October 2021 are located in the same valley, and were triggered by a high-intensity rainfall of 266 mm in one day. These similarities are never the same when conditioning factors are analyzed. The steep slopes of the hilly regions where all three landslides occurred originally contained natural contiguous forests that may have held the thin soil and regolith layer together. The modern landscape, however, is dominated by human interventions such as the replacement of natural vegetation with plantations, highways, and human settlements. These measures facilitated the triggering of the landslides by a sudden storm of intense rainfall (cf. Lahai et al. 2021 ). However, a closer check using ground reality and satellite photographs revealed that the Kokkayar landslide was completely caused by humans, whereas the Plappally landslide was also affected by geomorphic and tectonic causes. The third site, the Kavali landslide, was caused by forest fragmentation on the forest island. Consequently, regardless of the contributing components, the common and vital feature to be researched is the rainfall dynamics, which can be converted into early warning systems, thereby saving countless lives.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) for facilitating fieldwork in these areas. Jobin Sebastian, a freelance photographer and paraglide trainer, is highly thanked for providing photos (Figs. 1 d and 2 ). The lab work was carried out at the Laboratory for Earth Resources Information System (LERIS) housed at the Department of Geology, University of Kerala. LERIS is a collaborative initiative of Indian Space Research Organization and University of Kerala.

The author declare that there is no funding in the manuscript.

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Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala, 683574, India

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Department of Geology, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 695581, India

A. Rajaneesh & K. S. Sajinkumar

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, Punjab, 140306, India

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Ajin, R.S., Nandakumar, D., Rajaneesh, A. et al. The tale of three landslides in the Western Ghats, India: lessons to be learnt. Geoenviron Disasters 9 , 16 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40677-022-00218-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40677-022-00218-1

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Landslides triggered by heavy rainfall on 7 to 14 July 2023 in Himachal Pradesh, India

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The Landslide Blog is written by Dave Petley, who is widely recognized as a world leader in the study and management of landslides.

In July 2023, northern India was affected by intense and prolonged rainfall that triggered multiple landslides. Himachal Pradesh, in the NW Himalayas, was particularly badly impacted. A new paper published in the journal Landslides ( Sana et al. 2024 ) provides an initial review and description of this event.

Sana et al. (2024) describe the origins of this event, and in particular intense rainfall over the period 9 to 11 July 2023. In this period, a monsoonal trough interacted with a slow-moving, westward-propagating active western disturbance, generating a peak daily rainfall total of 85.6 mm on 9 July. The monthly total was in the range of 400-700 mm across the state.

The impacts were dramatic. Sana et al. (2024) outline a wide rage of outcomes across Himachal Pradesh, which include:

• 223 lives lost;
• 29 flash floods between 7 and 14 July;
• 70,000 tourists stranded;
• 5,400 landslides and road cut slope failures between 9 and 11 July;
• At least 1,300 road closures.

The authors provide a number of images showing the damage, including this one:

Himachal Pradesh is very landslide prone under natural conditions, but this is being exacerbated by the impact of climate change, environmental degradation and poor quality road construction, alongside high levels of human vulnerability. A properly developed landslide management strategy is needed, but sadly this is currently lacking in Himachal Pradesh. We will see more of these events in the coming years.

Sana, E., Kumar, A., Robson, E.  et al.  2024. Preliminary assessment of series of landslides and related damage by heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh, India, during July 2023 .  Landslides  (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02209-1

Text © 2023. The authors.  CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

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With 182 landslides this year, India urgently needs an early warning system

But there are challenges in the way, say scientists and experts..

On September 24, a major landslide hit a water pump at Chaba in the Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh and reportedly damaged a pipeline worth Rs 5 crore that supplied water to the district .

Earlier in June, relentless rains led to deadly landslides in Manipur’s Noney district , killing more than 53 people and leading to multiple casualties in the form of damage to property and displacement.

Landslides are an annual occurrence during monsoons, but developmental activities and the climate crisis have been increasing the risk of these disasters. In 2022, 10 states reported 182 landslide-related fatalities across multiple districts in the monsoon, according to data available with the Ministry of Home Affairs’ National Emergency Response Centre until September 2022.

“Landslides are very common during heavy rainfall or cloudbursts,” said Sridhar Balasubramanian, faculty at the Interdisciplinary Programme on Climate Studies Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. “A robust and reliable early warning system would definitely help in planning, management and saving lives.”

While initiatives have been taken to develop landslide susceptibility maps over the last decade, experts note that these maps lack the ability to precisely identify when and where landslides will occur.

A #landslide was reported along Mumbra Bypass Road in #Thane even as #Mumbai and surrounding regions continued to be pelted by heavy rains. No injuries were reported. #MumbaiRains pic.twitter.com/z34HMxCuXz — Hindustan Times (@htTweets) July 5, 2022

Scientists at the Geological Survey of India, a scientific agency established under the Ministry of Mines to conduct geological surveys and studies of India, in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, have been evaluating a prototype to predict landslides in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. If the model proves successful, it is likely to be deployed in some parts of India as early as 2025.

But even as the work progresses, scientists and experts we spoke to pointed to multiple technical challenges that can get in the way of a reliable prediction of landslides. “Early warning systems for landslides are very different from early warning systems for cyclones or floods,” said a senior National Disaster Management Authority official, on the condition of anonymity.

“You cannot have an early warning system for landslides without active monitoring. So I am not sure if we can ever develop an early warning system for landslides, the way we can for floods, droughts and cyclones.”

Referring to the Geological Survey of India’s prototype project, he said “We cannot attest to the reliability of such a system. There would certainly be differences in predictions.”

IndiaSpend.com reached out to the Geological Survey of India on August 26, 2022 to learn more about their development of a landslide warning system. The Geological Survey of India is yet to respond. We will update the story when we receive a response.

The landslide problem

Landslides are among the major hydro-geological hazards that affect large parts of India, particularly in the Himalayas, the Northeastern hill ranges, the Western Ghats, the Nilgiris, the Eastern Ghats and the Vindhyas. About 12.6% of India’s total land area, excluding snow-covered areas, is susceptible to landslide hazards, according to the Geological Survey of India .

Between 2015 and 2022, over 3,782 landslides have occured in different states and Union Territories, the Ministry of Earth Sciences reported during the monsoon session of Parliament. The highest number – 2,239 landslides – were reported in Kerala, followed by West Bengal with 376 landslides.

Landslides are largely reported to have been triggered by natural causes such as earthquakes or heavy rainfall. But human activity such as construction of roads , buildings and railways, mining and quarrying, and hydropower projects also damage hilly slopes and impact natural drainage by removing soil and vegetation, loosening soil and gravel, and making the hills more susceptible to landslides, IndiaSpend reported in October 2020.

Further, severe, unpredictable weather events such as heavy, intense rainfall due to the climate crisis add another layer of complexity to landslide incidents in the country.

Kerala | A landslide occurred at Kundala estate in Munnar in Idukki district last night. No casualties were reported. A temple & two shops damaged under the debris pic.twitter.com/obG3I83iuj — ANI (@ANI) August 6, 2022

The Ministry of Earth Sciences informed Parliament in July 2022 that unprecedented high rainfall is one of the major triggers of landslides in India. Infact, weather-related events were responsible for 95% of all disaster displacement in Asia between 2010-’21, according to a study published on September 19, 2022 by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Asian Development Bank. The study also revealed that between this period, as many as 1,52,000 were displaced by weather-related landslides in South Asia.

Maps short on accuracy

In 2013, the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand faced one of its “ worst disaster s”, when glacier melting and cloudbursts destabilised land at an elevation of 5,600 metres, inflicting heavy damage and killing nearly three dozen people. While the disaster essentially occured due to natural causes, it was enhanced manifold by anthropogenic activities such as hydropower projects, per a 2013 National Institute of Disaster Management report .

Five years before the Uttarakhand disaster, the National Disaster Management Authority had put together a set of Guidelines on Management of Landslides and Snow Avalanches . These included, among other things, building a database of landslide-prone areas through zonation mapping and geological and geotechnical investigation of vulnerable slopes and existing landslides.

“When infrastructure development takes place on slopes, the area by default becomes more prone to landslides,” said a senior National Disaster Management Authority official. “So the authorities responsible for the infrastructure need to conduct their own risk assessment on these slopes and convey it.”

“Even though the guidelines were issued in 2009, progress by way of their implementation was limited in landslide-affected states/UTs,” the National Disaster Management Authority admitted in its own 2021 report .

VIDEO: At least 34 people were killed in Mumbai, India's financial capital, after heavy monsoon rains triggered a landslide and the collapse of a wall pic.twitter.com/LBsngGx7ZA — AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 19, 2021

After the 2013 disaster, the Geological Survey of India launched the National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping project . Under it, Geological Survey of India prepared a landslide susceptibility map of 85% of the total target area (3,63,000 square km out of 4,20,000 square km) in different landslide-prone states and Union Territories. For this, Geological Survey of India also collected historical data covering 86,459 landslides.

“Earlier we had 1:50,000 resolution maps, now we have susceptibility maps at 1:10,000 scale,” said the National Disaster Management Authority official. “But we will have to continue to improve resolution, by say 1:5000 scale, to make it more accurate and granular.”

States have also been independently working to develop their own susceptibility maps. For instance, Mizoram’s capital city Aizawl has taken a lead over other hill towns and developed a landslide action plan using 1:18,000 scale susceptibility maps , besides enacting regulations to guide construction activities . Kerala has also prepared an action plan giving high priority to landslide hazard zonation maps in hilly areas at the municipality and panchayat levels.

But experts pointed out that the susceptibility maps are based on a probability model, which is a mathematical representation of the probabilities associated with the event happening in an area. “Landslides are very specific to a region,” noted Balasubramanian of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. “Our main challenge is forecasting on a local/hyperlocal scale. A district-wide or division forecast is of no use.”

Udit Bhatia, an assistant professor of civil engineering at the Indian Institute Technology, Gandhinagar, who worked on rainfall-induced disruptions along the Periyar river basin, noted, as an example, that the “Periyar river basin is part urban, part of it is covered in forest and part of it is covered in a significant mountain region. So an incident of a landslide is very specific in space and time.”

Unreliable monsoon

Early warning systems have been recognised as an effective tool to reduce vulnerabilities and improve preparedness and response to hazards, according to the United Nations Development Programme .

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–’30), an international document adopted by United Nations member states in 2015, requires countries to set out an early warning system with a multi-hazard approach by 2030.

“ Rainfall has been one of the major trigger events for landslides in India. The early warning system for landslides would only be as good as rainfall forecasting,” noted Balsubramanian. Knowing rainfall patterns is critical to understand which areas should be prepared for these (landslides, flooding, etc) kinds of impacts, added Bhatia.

Monsoon in the Indian subcontinent usually starts between late – May and early – June, but in the last couple of years it has become more erratic because of climate change, IndiaSpend reported in October 2022. Over the years, such uncertainties in the monsoon will only increase .

“Forecasting monsoon for the short term and long term is a complex phenomenon and there is no magic wand that will give you a perfect answer, every time,” said Bhatia.

Until 2021, the India Meteorological Department, an agency under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, and responsible for weather forecasting, used a long-range forecast method which predicted the quantum of total rainfall from June to September in two stages – first, in the third week of April, and then in the second week of June.

But much of this forecast was based on a statistical model that would rely on historical monsoon data coupled with atmospheric patterns, like El Nino or La Nina. However, an India Today study found that monsoon predictions using this model have gone wrong for many years.

In 2021, the India Meteorological Department updated its model to improve monsoon forecasting based on the Multi-Model Ensemble forecasting system . Based on sea surface temperature over the Pacific and Indian oceans, the model forecasts for the country as a whole, and for four homogeneous regions.

“Year after year, our understanding of monsoons is improving as we develop more data and more models,” said Bhatia. “The model [Multi-Model Ensemble model] developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and a European University specifically focuses on improving our forecasts for Indian monsoons at different temporal resolutions. So things are improving.”

We reached out to the India Meteorological Department for their response on monsoon forecasting in India on September 20. We will update the story when we receive their response.

Pilot projects

Independently, different academic institutions have been developing their own pilot models. In 2018, Coimbatore-based Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham set up real-time landslide monitoring and early warning systems in Munnar (Kerala) and Sikkim . The multiple sensor-based system analyses rainfall infiltration, pore water pressure (pressure of groundwater held within soil), vibrations, movements, and slope instability.

“Developing a pilot project means we start with some theory which we think would work, and generalise for different regions,” said Bhatia. “If they are successful, they give us some confidence to be able to apply it to diverse geographies.

“When we have multiple pilot projects doing that validation, one for the Western Ghats, one for Himalayas, etc, then we have an envelope of models which we call “mixture of experts”. So rather than relying on one single model, we get a mixture of experts that do the job they are best at doing.”

In another such project, the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, has also installed surface-level motion-sensor-based early warning systems for landslides at 10 locations in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The device collects weather parameters, soil moisture, soil movement and rainfall intensity.

When the device detects a significant displacement of earth which could result in a landslide, it alerts the officials. In 2018, the sensors successfully alerted officials about an impending landslide on the Mandi-Joginder Nagar highway. This helped the police turn away vehicles from the road before it was washed away.

In 2018, the first set of landslide monitoring systems was deployed in the field on a trial basis by the district administration, Mandi, said Varun Dutt and KV Uday, associate professors at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, who leads the project.

However, due to lack of awareness on the site, the systems installed faced the issues of vandalism and theft. This became a set-back on scaling the systems to higher quantities, which was solved in further years in consultation with relevant departments, and by spreading awareness.

In 2022, the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, boosted up the system to a few more districts in Himachal Pradesh. “While we are looking forward to installing more systems in the days to come, lack of awareness, funding limitations and the tedious purchase process have been some of the limitations for the scaling up of the technology,” noted Dutt.

As seen above, various institutions – both government and private – are working towards developing viable early warning systems to mitigate the devastation caused by annual landslides across the country. Equally, however, it is clear that thus far, such projects are few, far between and not yet up to scale – all of which adds up to the possibility of more destruction from disasters in the immediate future.

IndiaSpend has reached out to all concerned agencies asking about their progress in forecasting landslides and developing early warning systems. We will update the story as and when we receive responses.

This article was first published on IndiaSpend , a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.

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A month after India’s deadliest landslide ever, Wayanad villages begin to recover

On July 30, 2024, Wayanad in Kerala witnessed India’s worst-ever landslide, devastating the villages of Punchirimattam, Chooralmala and Mundakkai. The scale of destruction was unimaginable, with over 231 people confirmed dead, while body parts of 218 others have been recovered. After this massive tragedy, life struggles to return to normal, with many areas abandoned and debris still scattered across a once-thriving landscape.

In Chooralmala, the local post office is one of the few structures still operating. Packages pile up daily, mostly addressed to the missing or deceased. Outside, the police patrol to prevent curious disaster tourists from taking selfies, while another team guards ruined homes against theft.

A village shattered

At 2 am on that fateful night, two massive landslides wiped out an eight-kilometre stretch, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Homes are buried under loose soil and rocks, and survivors have been relocated to shelters or rented homes. Many occasionally return to their damaged properties, hoping to salvage belongings. Still, a civil defence official said chances of finding more survivors are slim, after weeks of rescue operations.

Chooralmala postmaster G Shalini reflected on the stack of undelivered packages to this reporter. “Most of these parcels will never reach their recipients — they are either deceased or still missing,” she said. Shalini and her husband, who also serves as a postmaster in Mundakkai, narrowly escaped the disaster as their home flooded. “We were lucky to survive,” she said.

Scattered across three villages lie remnants of lives interrupted: Kitchen utensils, school bags and furniture lie buried under mud and debris. Mud also covers houses, schools and other buildings, with half-cut pillars, muck reaching the bedrooms, and bikes and four-wheelers buried under slush.

Locals report thefts in the aftermath, with one incident involving the recovery of Rs 4 lakh beneath rubble. To deter such activities, police patrols have been increased and only residents with valid identity cards are permitted to return to their properties.

The government’s incident command centre has become the focal point of recovery, verifying the credentials of locals and issuing duplicate documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards, lost to the disaster. Meanwhile, rescue teams and earthmovers remain on standby as heavy rain continues, raising fears of further landslides.

The landslides have severely damaged agriculture in the region — large areas of cardamom, coffee, pepper, tea, coconut, areca nut and banana plantations have been destroyed, resulting in significant economic losses for the region, according to a senior official in the district administration.

Largest landslide in Indian history

The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority recently confirmed the Wayanad landslide as the largest in India’s recorded history. Research showed the event triggered a debris flow of approximately six million cubic meters — enough to fill 2,400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The Wayanad disaster was five times larger than the Malpa landslide in Uttarakhand in 1998, which had previously held the record for the biggest debris flow in the country. It was also three hundred times bigger than the 2020 landslide in Pettimudi, near Munnar, Kerala.

Researchers from the Kerala University and the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Mohali, conducted a study using photogrammetry and LiDAR technology. Their findings revealed that the landslide originated upstream of the Punnapuzha River, deep within the forested eastern slopes of the Western Ghats.

“The debris avalanche travelled eight kilometres from the landslide’s crown,” explained lead researcher KS Sajinkumar. “This was no ordinary landslide — it was a rock slide that transformed into a debris flow, blocked by Seethamma Kund before unleashing its force as a deadly avalanche.”

The study found that the disaster displaced rocks the size of vehicles, which had been worn smooth by rivers 250 million years ago. These rocks, exposed by previous landslides, had become vulnerable and the extreme rainfall in Wayanad this season only hastened their destruction.

Landslides usually stop once they reach the surface of the rock. In the case of the Chaliyar river, Adin Ishan from Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, Mohali discovered that weathered rocks beneath the riverbed, which were orientated against the flow of water, allowed water to seep in and accelerate the weathering process. This led to a significant 185 per cent increase in sediment levels in the river during the incident, indicating the large size of the landslip.

Ignored warnings

Adding to the tragedy is the revelation that this disaster could have been prevented. The Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology in Kalpetta, which operates over 200 meteorological stations in Wayanad, had issued a landslide warning 16 hours before the event. However, it appears the district collector’s office failed to act on the alert.

Activist MT Thomas filed a Right to Information request, questioning whether the office had received the alert. According to Thomas, the centre used data from its local weather monitoring systems to alert district officials to the possibility of landslides in Mundakkai and the surrounding villages 16 hours before the disaster.

The State Public Information Officer of the Disaster Management Wing at Wayanad Collectorate, however, has denied receiving official warnings, though previous alerts from the Hume Centre had led to timely evacuations, saving lives in earlier disasters.

The nearest weather station in Puthumala had recorded over 200 millimetres of rainfall on July 28 and another 130 mm overnight — significant enough to trigger landslides.

On August 29, at 9 am, the Hume Centre issued a landslide alert due to the risk posed by approximately 600 millimetres of rainfall. In total, the region had received 572 millimetres of rain within 48 hours.

While the Wayanad administration claimed to be unaware of the report, they acknowledged that in the past, they have acted on the Hume Centre’s warnings. In 2020, a prompt response to an alert from the centre saved lives in Mundakkai.

CK Vishnudas, the centre’s director, had shared the information with the District Emergency Operating Cell (DEOC), emphasising the urgency of evacuating residents from Mundakkai and two nearby villages. However, the district administration issued its own warning 14 hours later, on the same day as the Hume Centre's alert, but it did not mention the need for evacuation.

Thomas stated that he will file an appeal over the issue.

Schools reopen

A month after the disaster, life attempts to move forward. More than 600 students have returned to school, though their classes have been relocated to safer areas. Both the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School in Chooralmala and the Government Lower Primary School in Mundakkai were destroyed and at least 53 children from the two schools died.

Pupils now attend classes in Meppadi, with many receiving new uniforms and study materials to replace what was lost.

For these children, education is a welcome distraction from the trauma. “We won’t talk about the landslides in the classroom,” said headmaster K Unnikrishnan. “Our focus is on helping them adjust.”

Teachers have been trained in counselling techniques and the children are receiving ongoing therapy, according to district educational officer BC Bijesh.

One of the most heartbreaking stories is that of Avanthika Prashob, a student who survived but lost her entire family in the landslides. Her counsellors have advised not to tell her the full extent of her loss just yet, as she continues to recover from her injuries while living with her uncle.

Rehabilitation and delayed assistance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the landslide-hit regions shortly after the disaster and the state government submitted a detailed memorandum for central assistance. However, despite promises, aid has yet to reach the victims.

In the meantime, the state government is pushing forward with plans to build new townships for the displaced families. These will include 1,000 square-foot homes and small plots of land for cultivation. Philanthropists have also offered support, donating land and financial aid.

As Wayanad struggles to rebuild, its residents are left grappling with loss — of loved ones, homes and livelihoods. And while efforts to restore normalcy continue, the scale of the disaster will be felt for years to come.

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Landslide in India Buries Dozens, Killing at Least 25

Days of heavy rain had loosened the soil. India and neighboring Bangladesh have had record rainfall and severe flooding in the past two months.

By Karan Deep Singh

• Published July 1, 2022 Updated July 2, 2022

At least 25 people were killed and more feared dead, after days of heavy rainfall set off a landslide in India’s remote and mountainous northeastern state of Manipur.

It is the latest tragedy in a country that has been plagued by catastrophic rainfall and flooding in recent months. The extreme weather has destroyed communities, forced evacuations and threatened lives.

On Saturday, rescue workers in Manipur were still looking for dozens of people, who were instantly buried under layers of mud and rocks overnight Wednesday, when the landslide occurred in the Noney District. Indian television stations showed rescue personnel carrying mud-covered bodies on stretchers.

More rainfall has made rescue efforts even more challenging, Nongthombam Biren Singh, the chief minister of Manipur State, said on Twitter . He said 25 bodies had been recovered and 18 injured people had been rescued. “38 persons are still missing,” he added.

Many of the people who died and those still trapped under the rubble had been in the area to work on the construction of a railroad station deep in the mountains. Some were soldiers in the Indian Army. Others were railway workers, local villagers and laborers.

“The entire country is deeply saddened by loss of lives,” Mr. Singh said on Friday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter that he had reviewed the situation in Manipur and had assured Mr. Singh of “all possible support” from the central government. “I pray for the safety of all those affected,” he said. “My thoughts are with the bereaved families.”

Weeks of heavy rainfall from the monsoons have already killed more than 100 people and left millions homeless in India’s northeast and in neighboring Bangladesh. More than 60 people were killed in May during days of flooding, landslides and thunderstorms that left many people without food and drinking water and isolated them by cutting off the internet.

Tying climate change to an extreme weather event requires extensive scientific analysis. But climate change is often a contributing factor.

Scientists have said that India and Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their proximity to the warm tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, which are increasingly experiencing heat waves . The rising sea temperatures have led to dry conditions in some parts of the Indian subcontinent and a significant increase in rainfall in other areas, according to a study published in January by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune.

In India’s northeastern state of Assam, one of the worst affected areas during the pre-monsoon and monsoon season, a paramilitary camp was inundated by floodwaters on Friday after persistent rain over the last three days.

Mr. Singh, the chief minister, said the authorities were expecting bad weather to persist in Manipur. “The situation in the landslide affected area,” he said, “is still serious.”

The India Meteorological Department forecast heavy rainfall on Sunday in at least 14 states, including Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland, all in the northeast. The heavy rains delayed flights and submerged roads in India’s capital, New Delhi, on Thursday.

Karan Deep Singh is a reporter and visual journalist based in New Delhi, India. He previously worked for The Wall Street Journal, where he was part of a team that was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting and nominated for a national Emmy Award. More about Karan Deep Singh

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A hill slope failure analysis: A case study of Malingoan village, Maharashtra, India

Geology, Ecology, and Landscapes

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IRJET Journal

This paper deals with several aspects of the assessment of hazard and risk of land sliding. In recent years the interest in this topic has increased greatly and there are many technical papers dealing with this subject in the literature. Landslide is the phenomena of sliding of upper loose soil surface over another soil surface. Landslide study includes geological and Geotechnical properties of soil before and after landslide. Slope failures are common geo hazards in the near Panhala fort region during monsoon period. Mainly excess rainfall triggered the land slide, which directly affected on geotechnical properties of soil. The paper discusses the geological, geotechnical investigation of the area. The area is still failure prone and may fail as number potential failure surfaces exist in the site. The Geotechnical analysis of the slopes was carried out to identify the type of failure happened on the slope and to examine whether the chances of the profile to failure still exists in the site. The results showed that the hill slope was unstable with factor of safety less than one and which is prone to failure. This study provides a technically viable solution method to avoid such disaster in same topographical features. Angle of internal friction (Ø), plastic limit, liquid limit and plasticity index of the samples were determined in the Geo-technical laboratory.

Arabian Journal of Geosciences

Nilanchal Patel

Hilly regions are prone to landslides that cause heavy losses of life and properties every year. A number of researches and analyses are carried out in the GIS environment to identify landslide vulnerability in the region. The important conditioning factors identified by the researchers are slope, geological, geomorphologic features, and land use coupled with triggering factors like rainfall and a few of the anthropogenic activities. Soil forms the uppermost part of the earth crust, and it is expected that various soil characteristics like depth, surface texture, depth texture, soil erosion, hydraulic conductivity, stoniness, etc., play significant roles in causing landslide in the area. These factors have been ignored so far by most researchers while identifying landslide hazard-prone areas. This paper attempts to assess the vulnerability status in parts of East Sikkim, India, by integrating the influence of the various soil attributes. A composite index called soil stability value was determined by aggregating the weights assigned to different soil parameters. Finally, based on the soil stability values, the study area was classified into least vulnerable, moderately vulnerable, and most vulnerable zones of landslide occurrences. Comparison between the vulnerability zones and the actual landslide occurrences yielded a 90% agreement with the density of landslides in the most vulnerable zone, demonstrating the efficacy of soil characteristics as potential indicators of landslide events.

International Journal of Geosciences

Ramawadh Kushwaha

Anandrao Patil

Bulletin of The Department of Geology

suman manandhar

Journal of Global Resources

Landslides are the common phenomena in the hilly terrain of Western Ghats region due to the heavy rainfall. The occurrence of landslides in the study area Sakleshpura and Belthanggudi Talluk in Karnataka state is quite less in comparison to Himalayan region. In the year 2018, during monsoon season the study area faced divesting floods and landslides. The aim of this study is to identify the landslide prone zones using Frequency Ratio Model with the help of ArcGIS software. The factors considered for this study are slope, soil, drainage density, distance from drainage and rainfall. All the spatial data have been calculated using frequency ratio model and each grid factor has been summed up into three categories such as high, moderate and low hazard zone. The results of this study reveals that that 160 sq.km areas is under very low with landslide density (LD) of 0.01, 894 s.km area is under medium zone with LD of 0.02, 75.36 sq.km area is under high hazard zone with LD of 0.05. The study also reveals that the soil is more vulnerable factor for landslide on the basis of frequency ratio value flowed by rainfall, slope, distance from drainage and drainage density in the study area. The final output of the map can be helpful for the local government of the study area.

Zameer Ahmed

Bambang Istijono , Abdul Hakam

Prof. Dr. Khan Shahzada

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Nine dead as landslides, triggered by incessant rains, hit Sikkim

Excessive rainfall triggers landslides in north sikkim, killing six and leaving two injured. tourists stranded, relief efforts underway..

Six more people were killed and two others wounded as excessive rainfall triggered massive landslides across North Sikkim, causing extensive damage, blocking several key roads and inundating dozens of homes across the region, officials said on Thursday.

The toll in the state from the recent spate of rainfall and landslides is now nine, with three deaths reported on Monday.

The tiny Himalayan state in eastern India has been recording excessive rainfall since Sunday, even as people in the rest of the country reel from varying degrees of heatwaves and water shortages. Around 2,000 tourists are stranded in the state as of Thursday evening, officials said.

The Sikkim government has initiated measures for relief and to provide basic necessities, a statement from the chief minister’s office said.

“Efforts are underway to provide every possible support to the victims and affected families, including recovery assistance, temporary settlement, and the provision of basic needs,” chief minister Prem Singh Tamang, who was in Itanagar for the swearing in ceremony of Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, was quoted as saying in Sikkim government’s statement.

Mangan district, the northernmost region of the state bordering China, was the worst affected. According to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mangan district in North Sikkim received over 220mm rain between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning.

“A massive and devastating landslide has struck the areas around Mangan and various locations in North Sikkim following incessant rainfall since yesterday. This tragic incident has resulted in the loss of lives, the destruction of houses, and the displacement of families,” the government statement said.

While there were no official reports on how many people were displaced in this week’s havoc, over a hundred people have been affected.

In 2023, a flash flood devastated the state and also triggered a glacial lake outburst on the South Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim. Around 100 towns and villages were partially or severely hit. It included the towns of Lachen and Chungthang in north Sikkim. More than 88,000 people were affected. At least 33 bridges were washed away.

On Thursday, while three casualties were reported from Pakshep, three were killed in Ambhithang – both in North Sikkim which comprises Mangan district. With this, the toll in the state rose to nine, with three deaths being reported on Monday in South Sikkim.

The landslides blocked several roads and washed away some massive sections of others, damaged houses and uprooted electricity poles in multiple areas in Mangan. Several houses at Upper Gyathang and Tarag villages were completely damaged by landslides in Djongu area. The road leading to Mangan, the district headquarters, has been cut off. There were also several reports of deaths of cattle and poultry birds.

“The road leading to Mangan has been washed away at multiple points. This has cut off the supply line as vehicles can’t reach several areas. Measures were being taken to open up new routes to connect the cut off regions,” a district official in Mangan said.

District magistrate Hem Kumar Chettri said: “More than two thousand tourists are stranded at places like Lachen and Lachung. But they are all safe.”

Other areas like Damthang in South Sikkim, Gyalshing in West Sikkim and Gangtok have received 30mm-50mm rain in the same period. Ravangla in South Sikkim received 119.5mm rain between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, while Tadong in Gangtok district in East Sikkim, received around 103 mm rain between Monday and Tuesday morning.

While the state normally receives around 162mm rain between June 1 and June 13, according to IMD data, this year it has registered 250mm rain in the last 13 days, resulting in 54% excess.

Despite the rainfall so far, IMD has predicted even more in the coming days. IMD has issued a red alert for North Sikkim and orange alerts for others districts in the state, warning of more rain and possible landslides over the next four to five days.

“Alert for heavy to very heavy rainfall in all the six districts of Sikkim, till around the morning of June 18, has been sounded. For Mangan district, a red alert was in place for Thursday. Over the next few days orange alert has been issued for districts such as Gangtok, Geyzing and Mangan. The weather impact forecast says that there are possibilities of flash floods and landslides,” an IMD official said.

Attributing the excess rain to a strong monsoon trough and a low-pressure area over the state, GN Raha, director of IMD’s regional office in Gangtok, said, “Monsoon had hit Sikkim and sub-Himalayan West Bengal on May 31. Over the past few days, the monsoon trough has bene very strong over Sikkim and as a result moisture-laden winds are gushing in from the Bay of Bengal. Secondly an elongated area of low pressure also passes over Sikkim. This is triggering the rains.”

Earlier, landslides were reported from several pockets in Gangtok district. At Namchi in South Sikkim, the main water supply pipeline was damaged hitting water supplies.

Officials from North Sikkim said the new bridge near Sangkalang, which was built by the Army and Border Roads Organisation after a glacial lake outburst in North Sikkim left over 100 dead in October last year, was completely damaged. As a result, connectivity between upper and lower Djongu, Chungthang, Lachung and Lachen has been cut off.

In West Bengal’s Kalimpong district, many people were rendered homeless as the Teesta River damaged human habitations along its banks. At Teesta Bazar, which was badly affected by the flash floods last year, the road leading to Darjeeling via Peshok was inundated, officials said.

Balasubramanian T, district magistrate of Kalimpong, said, “Many new vulnerable points have been identified on NH-10.” Used extensively by the Army and civilians, NH-10, which leads right up to the Indo-China border, is the lifeline of Sikkim and Kalimpong.

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Understanding Landslides in Wayanad: Environmental and Human Factors at Play-By Satyasri Akula

Updated on: 10 September,2024 05:56 PM IST  |  Mumbai Buzz | [email protected]

• Text  

Wayanad, a picturesque district nestled in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India, is renowned for its lush landscapes and rich biodiversity.

However, its stunning topography also makes it vulnerable to frequent landslides. The landslides in Wayanad are a result of a complex interplay between environmental conditions and human activities. Understanding these factors is crucial for effective mitigation and prevention.

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Environmental Factors: Geological Factors: The area’s geological complexity, including rock formations prone to weathering and erosion, further exacerbates landslide risks. Fractures and faults in the rock can undermine slope stability.

Rainfall: The region’s heavy monsoon rains play a crucial role in landslides. These torrential rains saturate the soil, compromising the stability of slopes. The excessive water flow can erode the soil, heightening the risk of landslides.

Topography: Wayanad steep inclines and rugged terrain create ideal conditions for landslides. As a region within the Western Ghats, its hilly landscape is naturally unstable and susceptible to shifting under pressure

Human Factors : Deforestation: The widespread removal of forests for agricultural and developmental purposes has stripped away the natural vegetation that previously helped anchor the soil. Without the stabilizing roots of trees and plants, the soil becomes more vulnerable to displacement, thereby increasing the risk of landslides.

Agricultural Practices: The expansion of agricultural activities, especially on steep slopes, contributes to soil erosion. Additionally, practices such as terracing and the application of chemical fertilizers can exacerbate erosion and instability in the soil.

Construction Activities: Unplanned or poorly managed construction projects, such as road building and housing development, can destabilize slopes. Inadequate drainage systems and improper excavation exacerbate the risk.

Land Use Changes: Transforming forested areas into agricultural or urban developments disrupts the natural equilibrium, thereby elevating the risk of landslides.

Mitigation Measures : To address the risks of landslides in Wayanad, a comprehensive approach is necessary:

Afforestation: Replanting trees and restoring vegetation can help stabilize the soil and reduce landslide risks. Forest cover plays a crucial role in maintaining soil integrity.

Slope Stabilization: Utilizing engineering methods such as terracing, constructing retaining walls, and installing efficient drainage systems can help reinforce and stabilize slopes, thereby decreasing the risk of landslides.

Regulation and Planning : Adhering to land use regulations and meticulously planning construction and agricultural projects can help maintain slope stability. Adopting sustainable development practices is vital to prevent destabilization.

Early Warning/Risk Assessment Systems : Establishing advanced early warning systems to forecast and track landslide risks is crucial for effective preparedness and mitigation strategies.

Conclusion : The landslides in Wayanad arise from a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors. The area's steep terrain and heavy rainfall, coupled with deforestation, haphazard construction, and alterations in land use, create a fragile equilibrium that can be easily disturbed. Tackling these challenges necessitates a comprehensive strategy that integrates environmental stewardship with prudent land management. Through the adoption of robust mitigation measures and the promotion of sustainable practices, we can mitigate the effects of landslides and safeguard the region's stunning and diverse landscape.

Author Profile :

Satyasri Akula  Lead SAP Consultant | Doctoral Candidate

Satyasri Akula is a seasoned Tech Lead with over a decade of experience in SAP and research academia. Currently serving as a Lead Consultant in the SAP domain, she brings extensive expertise in digital transformation and strategic management. She holds a postgraduate degree in Data Science and Business Analytics from The University of Texas at Austin.

Currently pursuing a Doctorate in the Impact of Strategic Management on Business Growth Powered by Digital Innovation at the Swiss School of Management, Rome, Italy, Satyasri is deeply committed to advancing her knowledge in leadership and organizational development. Her career is distinguished by a focus on mastering effective leadership, and she has made significant contributions to this field through extensive publications in top-tier journals and presentations at numerous international conferences.

Satyasri  is also the author of the acclaimed book, Leadership: The Art of Inspiring Others. Her work reflects a profound passion for inspiring and guiding others, evidenced by her robust academic pursuits and professional achievements.

For further insights into her research and publications, visit her ORCID profile: 0009-0005-2269-8862 (https://Orcid.org/0009-0005-2269-8862).

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Landslide Disasters: Seeking Causes – A Case Study from Uttarakhand, India

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This study is about the fundamental causes and character of landslides in the Himalaya and similar mountain belts. In part, it is intended as a protest against the repetitive and misleading reports that so often follow each successive extreme rainfall event and consequent landslide swarm. The problem is that many of these.‘kneejerk’. reactions to a disaster do little more than support folklore or a particular political stance.

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Haigh, M., Rawat, J.S. (2012). Landslide Disasters: Seeking Causes – A Case Study from Uttarakhand, India. In: Krecek, J., Haigh, M.J., Hofer, T., Kubin, E. (eds) Management of Mountain Watersheds. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2476-1_18

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Hopes of finding more survivors in the mud and debris wane after landslides in India kill 194

Officials say 187 people are unaccounted for., by rishi lekhi and rafiq maqbool | the associated press • published august 1, 2024 • updated on august 1, 2024 at 4:37 pm.

Hopes of finding more than 180 missing people alive waned as rescue workers searched through mud and debris for a third day Thursday after landslides set off by torrential rains killed at least 194 people in southern India.

The rescue work was challenging in a forested, hilly area while more rain fell, said PM Manoj, a spokesperson for Kerala state’s top elected official. Nearly 40 bodies were found some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the area in Wayanad district where the main landslides occurred, after being swept along the Chaliyar River.

Torrents of mud and water swept through tea estates and villages in hilly areas in the district early Tuesday. They flattened houses and destroyed bridges, and rescuers had to pull out people stuck under mud and debris.

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"This is one of the worst natural calamities Kerala state has ever witnessed," Kerala's top elected official, Pinarayi Vijayan, said.

Manoj said 187 people were unaccounted for as of Thursday. In addition to the dead and missing, 186 people were injured. Most of the victims were tea estate workers.

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More than 5,500 people have been rescued, Vijayan said, with some 1,100 rescue personnel, helicopters and heavy equipment involved.

The army was constructing a temporary bridge after the main bridge in one of the worst-affected areas was swept away. Images from the site show rescue workers making their way through muck and floodwater while a land excavator cleared debris.

The Mundakkai and Chooralmala areas are destroyed, Vijayan said.

Manoj said more than 8,300 people have been moved to 82 government-run relief camps where the government is ensuring food delivery and essential items.

Local volunteers trekked for kilometers (miles) through the devastation to join the rescuers searching for the missing. They said they also recovered body parts of some of people who were killed in the disaster.

“We are finding bodies that have lost limbs. Sometimes we find only limbs," said Shakir Husain, a local shopkeeper.

The area is known for its picturesque tea and cardamom estates, with hundreds of plantation workers living in nearby temporary shelters. Of the nearly 400 houses, only 30 were left intact. The rest were swept away by the landslides, said Husain.

“This was a very beautiful place. I used to visit here many times. My friend had three houses here. Now there is nothing left," he said.

Kerala, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, is prone to heavy rains, flooding and landslides. The Indian Meteorological Department said Wayanad district had up to 28 centimeters (11 inches) of rain on Monday and Tuesday.

India regularly has severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season, but often cause extensive damage. Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic because of climate change and global warming.

Heavy rains also wreaked havoc in other parts of India in recent days.

New Delhi, the Indian capital, shut schools on Thursday after torrential downpours the previous day submerged roads, left residents stranded and killed at least two people, news agency Press Trust of India reported. More rains were expected in the coming days.

In the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, three people were killed and around 40 were reported missing after heavy rains and two cloudbursts washed away homes, flooded roads and damaged infrastructure, authorities told PTI on Thursday. Four people were also killed Wednesday in the neighboring Uttarakhand state following heavy rains.

Meanwhile, at least 13 people, including three children, were killed in lightning strikes in eastern Bihar state on Thursday, a statement from the chief minister’s office said. Most of the victims had gone to plant paddy in the fields when lightning struck them.

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Key Landslide Triggers: A Case Study of Upper Alaknanda Valley, Uttarakhand Himalaya, India

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Wayanad Tragedy: A Stark Warning for Assam’s Hilly Regions

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Bijoy Krishna Chetia

The horrific landslide disaster that struck Wayanad, Kerala, on July 30 sent has left the nation in shock. Over 400 lives were lost, and more than 150 people went missing. Villages like Punjirimattom, Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala, Meppadi, and Kunhome, where many residents worked on tea farms, bore the brunt of the devastation. The steep slopes on which these farms were built became deadly channels of destruction, wiping out homes and leaving behind a landscape of heartbreak.

The tragedy has sparked critical discussions among experts and researchers about the root causes of the landslide. While landslides are natural phenomena, there’s a growing consensus that human activities significantly exacerbated the situation in Wayanad. Decades of environmental neglect played a central role in this catastrophe.

Years of Environmental Degradation Paved the Way for Disaster

A research paper titled “Impact of Plantation Induced Forest Degradation on the Outbreak of Emerging Infectious Diseases—Wayanad District, Kerala, India,” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2022, highlights the long-term damage to Wayanad’s environment. The study examines how Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) in Wayanad changed between 1950 and 2018, offering key insights into how human actions shaped the area, leading to the recent tragedy.

A Timeline of Environmental Damage:

The study divides Wayanad’s environmental changes into three phases:

1950-1982: The Start of Degradation

During this period, Wayanad’s forest cover significantly decreased from 1,811.35 sq km in 1950 to 1,064.68 sq km in 1982—a ~41% loss. This was mainly due to government policies that encouraged industrial activities. For example, the Kerala State Government’s agreement with the Aditya Birla Group to supply bamboo for a pulp factory led to widespread deforestation. Additionally, tropical forests were converted into industrial plantations, causing further damage.

• 1982-2012: The Spread of Plantations

In this phase, forest cover continued to decline, primarily due to forest fires caused by human activities. Between 2001 and 2011, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary experienced 316 fire incidents, worsening environmental damage. Traditional multi-cropping practices were replaced by monoculture plantations, further altering the region’s landscape.

• 2012-2018: The Final Blow

In the most recent phase, plantation areas expanded even more, reducing natural forests. By 2018, only 38.36% of Wayanad was covered by natural forests, while 51.44% was taken over by human-made plantations. This shift in land use has greatly harmed the region’s biodiversity and ecological balance.

Lessons for Assam: A Warning for Hilly Areas

The Wayanad landslide is not just a local tragedy; it is a warning for other hilly areas in India, particularly Assam. The state, with its hilly districts and the rapidly expanding city of Guwahati, faces similar environmental risks. It is crucial to remember that Assam already experienced a devastating landslide in the Dima Hasao District in 2022.

Here’s how the parallels between Assam and Wayanad raise serious concerns:

Deforestation and Soil Instability

Like Wayanad, Assam’s hilly regions have witnessed significant deforestation over the years. Removing natural forests weakens the soil, making landslides more likely. Geoscientist C.P. Rajendran noted in an interview with The Hindu that deforestation in Wayanad since the 1980s altered the soil, contributing to the landslide. Similar risks could be present in Assam, where deforestation and changes in land use are common.

The Threat of Monoculture  Plantations

The growth of monoculture plantations in Assam, especially in the tea and rubber industries, mirrors the trends seen in Wayanad. While these plantations are economically important, they often harm the environment. Replacing diverse cropping systems with monocultures can lead to soil degradation and make the area more vulnerable to natural disasters.

Urban Expansion and Land Use Changes

Guwahati, one of the fastest-growing cities in Northeast India, is rapidly expanding into nearby hilly areas. This urban sprawl, coupled with poor urban planning, poses serious risks. Building in ecologically sensitive areas increases the chance of landslides, particularly during heavy rains.

The tragedy in Wayanad should prompt Assam and other hilly regions to reassess their land use and environmental policies. Immediate action is needed to protect the remaining natural forests, control plantation activities, and ensure sustainable urban development. Without these measures, Assam could face a disaster similar to Wayanad, with devastating effects on both people and the environment.

As India mourns the loss of lives in Wayanad, let us also learn from this tragedy to prevent future disasters. The message from Wayanad is clear: the price of environmental damage is too high, and the time to act is now.

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85% of Indian districts, including those in Kerala, exposed to extreme climate events: Study

06 september 2024, 04:16 pm ist.

New Delhi: The recent landslides in Kerala, triggered by erratic and intense rainfall, underscore the severe climate challenges faced across India. A new study by IPE Global and Esri India reveals that more than 85 per cent of Indian districts are exposed to extreme climate events such as floods, droughts, and cyclones.

The study, which utilized a penta-decadal analysis covering 50 years from 1973 to 2023, found a dramatic increase in climate extremes over the last decade. Extreme flood events have surged four-fold, while drought events have doubled and cyclones have increased four-fold.

The study also identified a "swapping" trend in 45 per cent of districts, where areas traditionally prone to floods are increasingly experiencing droughts, and vice versa. This shift is most prominent in districts across Tripura, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, and Jharkhand.

Districts in eastern India are more prone to extreme flood events, followed closely by the country's northeastern and southern parts.

The study also shows there has been a two-fold increase in drought events, especially agricultural and meteorological droughts, and a four-fold increase in cyclone events.

It found that more than 60 per cent of districts in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Assam were experiencing more than one extreme climate event.

Abinash Mohanty -- head of climate change and sustainability practice at IPE Global and the study's author -- said, "The current trend of catastrophic climate extremes that makes nine out of 10 Indians exposed to extreme climate events is a result of a 0.6 degree Celsius temperature rise in the last century."

"Recent Kerala landslides triggered by incessant and erratic rainfall episodes, floods in Gujarat, the disappearance of Om Parvat's snow cover, and cities getting paralysed with sudden and abrupt downpours is a testament that climate is changed. Our analysis suggests that more than 1.47 billion Indians will be highly exposed to climate extremes by 2036," he said.

The study recommended establishing a Climate Risk Observatory, a risk-informed decision-making toolkit for policymakers at the national, state, district and city levels under its National Resilience Programme, and the creation of an Infrastructure Climate Fund to support sustained investment in climate-resilient critical infrastructure and foster locally-led climate actions.

Ashwajit Singh, founder and managing director of IPE Global, said, "To meet climate goals, India must shift its budget focus from mitigation to adaptation. Current practices underfund climate resilience, risking long-term sustainability. India, in particular, experienced an 8 per cent GDP loss in 2022 and a cumulative capital wealth decrease of 7.5 per cent due to climate impacts."

Agendra Kumar -- Esri India's managing director -- said the increasing frequency and intensity of heat waves, in conjunction with intense precipitation, was causing significant impacts on lives, livelihoods and infrastructure.

A holistic, data-driven approach is essential for informed policy decisions, climate adaptation and resilience, he said. PTI

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A Detailed study on Landslides in India

• Posted By 10Pointer
• Categories Geography
• Published 21st Aug, 2021

Introduction

Landslides have caused massive damage of life and property during extremely heavy rain across India. The Kedarnath landslide in Uttarakhand in June 2013, caused by flash floods that resulted in over 5,000 deaths, was identified as the most tragic such disaster. Recently a landslide hit Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh, which happened for the second time in 15 days, killing at least 14 people and burying many others. The tragedy was exacerbated by heavy rain, hailstones, and debris on vehicles, including a state-of-the-art transport bus on National Highway 5.

                                                                           15% of India's landmass is prone to landslides, however, its vulnerability will increase in the future due to climate change and human pressure. This improved size can be considered by adopting a multidisciplinary approach that integrates all aspects of disaster risk management namely mitigation, preparedness, response, and rehabilitation.

What is landslide?

Landslides are the rapid movement of rock, soil, and vegetation under a slope under the influence of gravity. It can be caused by natural factors, e.g. Heavy rain, earthquakes, or can be caused by extreme human disturbance of the slope - stability. Landslides are rarely at the same level as earthquakes or volcanic events. The magnitude and magnitude of landslides, however, depends on the geological structure, the slope angle of the slope, the nature of the mountain rocks, and the interaction of people with the slope. As per Geological Survey of India, the window of economic loss due to landslides may reach between 1-2% of the gross national product in many developing countries.

Causes of Landslides

The main causes of landslides are

• Rain and snow
• Excessive or continuous rainfall can lead to massive landslides in the high slopes where National Highways and roads are built.
• The Nashri region between BatoteRamban-Ramsu, and Banihal (Jammu and Kashmir) is prone to landslides. Landslides in this area are especially difficult during the rainy season and winter when car traffic is disrupted for a few days.
• Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
• Earthquakes are a major cause of landslides in mountainous areas. In India, Landslides are more common in the rolling hills of the Tertiary Period, such as the Himalayas.
• In the Kashmir region, the 1905 earthquake caused a landslide in the small Himalayas and the Greater Himalayas in which several thousand people lost their lives.
• Volcanoes also cause landslides in mountainous areas.
• Mining, Mining and Cutting Road
• The continued extraction of coal, minerals, and minerals from the mines and quarries and the construction of roads by cutting slopes on the rolling hills create the ideal conditions for the availability of soil extraction.
• Such landslides can be seen throughout the Himalayas and in the Eastern and Western Ghats.
• Loading about housing
• The unplanned growth of cities and towns in hilly areas without exploring soil and rock is also an important cause of landslides.
• The eastern slope of Nanital (Uttarakhand) is sinking due to the heavy load of hotels and residential buildings.
• Deforestation
• Deforestation and other human activities also cause landslides. Most landslides are minor involving some blocks up to a few meters across. But some are big enough to cause disaster. They can bury roads, buildings, and other structures.
• The negative effects of erosion can be reduced by observing deforestation on mountain slopes, by following the building codes of these areas, and by avoiding the construction of buildings on steep slopes.

India among the countries most affected by landslides due to human activities:

• Earthquakes caused by human activities are increasing worldwide and India is among the worst-affected countries, accounting for at least 28% of such incidents over the past 12 years, according to a published study.
• Investigators have collected data on more than 4,800 deadly earthquakes that occurred from 2004 to 2016, leaving behind those caused by earthquakes.
• More than 56,000 people have been killed by landslides worldwide during this time, most of them affected by one slope, according to a study based on the Global Fatal Landslide Database (GFLD).
• At least 700 of these deadly landslides were caused by construction work, illegal mining, and uncontrolled rolling of hills.
• While the trend is global, Asia has been found to be the most affected continent where 75% of landslides occurred, with the highest number reported near the Himalayan Arc.
• All 10 countries in the world of deadly humanitarian catastrophes are located in Asia. India accounts for 20% of these cases.
• The study states that fatal soil erosion is on the rise in India, where landslides caused by construction occur during this period, followed by China (9%), Pakistan (6%), the Philippines (5%), Nepal (5%) and Malaysia (5%).).
• We knew that people were putting increasing pressure on the local community, but it was surprising to find the obvious trend in the database that deadly landslides caused by construction, illegal mountain cutting and illegal mines were increasing worldwide during this time.

Vulnerability profile of India

In India, the hazard affects at least 15% of the world's land area (approximately 0.49 million square km.) It is most common in geodynamical operating areas in the Himalayan and Arakan-Yoma areas in the north-eastern part of the country and as in the more stable areas of Meghalaya Plateau, Western Ghats and Nilgiri Hills. The Nilgiri Mountains, located at the confluence of the Eastern and Western Ghats, bear countless scars from landslides.

Consequences of landslides

• Loss of Life: The most devastating effect of landslides is the loss of precious human and animal life. In the latest Kinnaur Landslide, 14 deaths have already been reported.
• Restrictions on Travel: Mud, rocks, and sloping debris create a barrier to critical transport routes such as highways, railways, etc. This prevents the movement of goods and people.
• Infrastructure Damage: Several houses, buildings, roads, and other infrastructure are damaged whenever an earthquake occurs.
• Economic Loss: The amount of money spent restores lost infrastructure, mass rehabilitation, and the provision of relief services to affected people.
• Risk of Water Availability: When soil erosion occurs on slopes of a river valley, the size of the sliding can reach the bottom of the valley and cause partial or complete closure of the river channel. This pile of debris leading to the river closure is often called the Landslide dam. It can affect the availability of water to nearby people.

Measures taken for land management in India

• National Disaster Risk Management Strategy (2019): Addresses all aspects of disaster risk reduction and management, including risk mapping, monitoring and early warning systems, awareness programs, skills development, training, regulations and policies, stabilization and landslide reduction, etc.
• Hazard zones have to be identified and specific slides to be stabilized and managed in addition to monitoring and early warning systems to be placed at selected sites.
• Hazard mapping should be done to locate areas commonly prone to landslides. It is always advisable to adopt area-specific measures to deal with landslides.
• Restriction on the construction and other developmental activities such as roads and dams, limiting agriculture to valleys and areas with a moderate slope, and control on the development of large settlements in high vulnerability zones, should be enforced.
• Landslide Hazard, vulnerability and Risk Assessment
• Multi – Hazard Conceptualisation
• Landslide Remediation practice
• Research and Development, monitoring, and early warning
• Knowledge network and management
• Capacity building and Training
• Public awareness and Education
• Emergency preparedness and response
• Regulation and Enforcement

Suggestive Measures

• Firstly, provinces such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in high-risk areas should be especially vigilant in pursuing disruptive projects. There should be a proper implementation of the environmental impact assessment procedures prior to the start of mining or dam construction.
• Second, there should be the adoption of small-scale zoning processes for mountains and other high-risk regions.
• Third, more funding should be made to planning and demolition agencies and reducing structures to improve disaster management.
• Fourthly, there should be the involvement of trained staff in the area to strengthen the reduction of public awareness programs and programs.
• Fifth, mitigation strategies such as limiting agriculture in the valleys and areas with moderate slopes, promoting large-scale deforestation programs, and building masses to reduce water flow, etc.

The conclusion

• Increased human encroachment on the environment has led to an increase in the number of natural disasters.
• However, the National Disaster Response Force under The Disaster Management Act, 2005 has carried out many rescue operations by providing assistance and assistance to the affected country, including deployment, at the request of Government, Armed Forces, Central Military, and similar communications, air and other supplies. They have also worked to increase public awareness to reduce the impact of these natural disasters by organizing preparedness campaigns.

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30 houses under threat as repeated landslides hit Bageshwar village in Uttarakhand

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