Mizoram saw 12,385 landslides from 1988-2022, the highest; This is followed by 11,219 in Uttarakhand and 8,070 in Tripura
Uttarakhand witnessed 11,219 landslides from 1988-2022. Image: iStock
Rudraprayag and Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand are the most landslide-prone districts in the country, according to Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) satellite data. A new report looks at areas prone to landslides 17 states and two Union Territories of India in the Himalayas and Western Ghats.
Other high risk districts were found in Rajouri, Thrissur, Pulwama, Palakkad, Malappuram, South Sikkim, East Sikkim and Kozhikode in Kerala, Jammu Kashmir and Sikkim. Landslide Atlas of India 2023. The Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Center has developed an all-India database of around 80,000 landslides from 1998 to 2022.
Read more: Joshimath Dip: Preparations for Chardham Yatra begin; Locals are still ignorant about permanent resettlement
Recent incidents of landslides in Joshimath, Uttarakhand are discussed On June 29, 2022, at least 79 people were killed in a landslide in Manipur’s Noni district.
Source: Landslide Atlas of India 2023
The risk analysis in the report was based on human and animal population density, indicating the impact on humans due to these landslides. Landslides caused by the Kedarnath disaster in 2013 and the devastating Sikkim earthquake in 2011 are also included in the atlas.
Between 1988 and 2022, the highest number of landslides – 12,385 – was recorded in Mizoram. Uttarakhand followed at 11,219, Tripura at 8,070, Arunachal Pradesh at 7,689, Jammu and Kashmir at 7,280. 6,039 landslides were recorded in Kerala, 5,494 in Manipur and 5,112 in Maharashtra.
Globally, landslides are the third deadliest natural disaster. However, deforestation due to unplanned urbanization and human greed increases the risk of such incidents. In 2006, about 4 million people were affected by landslides, including a large number of Indians, the report said.
India is among the top four countries with the highest risk of landslides, it added. If we look at the statistics, about 0.42 million square kilometers are prone to landslides in the country, which is 12.6 percent of the country’s total land area.
However, the figure does not include snow-covered areas. About 0.18 million sq km of the country’s landslide-prone area is in the North Eastern Himalayas, including the Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas, the Atlas said.
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Of the rest, 0.14 million sq km is in the North Western Himalayas (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir); 90,000 sq km in the Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) and 10,000 sq km in the Eastern Ghats of Arukur in Andhra Pradesh, the atlas added.
Landslides due to sudden heavy rains are also increasing due to climate change, experts said. About 73 percent of landslides in the Himalayan region are attributed to heavy rainfall and reduced soil water absorption capacity.
Global climate change is causing heavy rainfall that erodes steep slopes with loose soil, a 2020 finding Research by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Therefore, the increasing number of landslides can no longer be attributed to natural disasters only, as human activities have also played a major role.
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