Landslide

Landslides occur when a significant quantity of bedrock slides rapidly. The causes of landslides are far less apparent disasters than earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and cyclones. However, the landslides’ influence on the ecological environment and the country’s economy is somewhat devastating.

• Some relatively isolated elements influence the landslides
• Collecting data and monitoring the probability of landslides is not only complex but also extremely expensive
• India has been categorised into various zones depending on past experiences, regularity, and causal links with key parameters like geology, slope, geomorphic agents, vegetation cover, land use, and human activities

Vulnerability Zones for Landslides

• Extremely High Vulnerability Zone: These landslide vulnerability zones are particularly unsteady, such as reasonably young mountainous regions in the Himalayas and Andaman and Nicobar, extreme rainfall regions with steep slopes in the Western Ghats and Nilgiris, the northeastern areas, and areas that frequently experience ground-shaking caused by earthquakes, and areas with a high concentration of human activity, notably those associated to the development of roads, dams, and other infrastructure
• High Vulnerability Zone: This category comprises areas with nearly identical circumstances to those found in the extremely high vulnerability zone. The sole variation among these two is the regulating elements’ balance, intensity, and recurrence. Excluding the plains of Assam, all Himalayan regions and states from the northeastern areas are present in the high vulnerability zones
• Medium to Minimal Vulnerability Zone: Occasional landslides occur in areas with little precipitation, such as the Trans-Himalayan areas of Ladakh and Spiti (Himachal Pradesh), distorted yet steady relief and fewer rainfall regions in the Aravali, rain shadow regions in the Western and Eastern Ghats, and the Deccan plateau. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, and Kerala have the highest landslides owing to mines and subsiding

Consequences of Landslides:

• Consequences of landslides can cause river channels to be diverted, resulting in flooding and the loss of lives and properties
• Landslides generally have modest and localised regions of real impact, but roadblocks, railway line collapse, and channel blockage owing to rock falls have far-reaching repercussions

Mitigation

• When dealing with landslides, it is usually best to use area-specific precautions
• Some helpful actions include sponsoring large-scale afforestation projects and building bunds to control water movement
• There should be a limitation on infrastructural developments and associated projects like dams and roads. Moreover, agriculture and cultivation should be limited to valleys and regions with moderate elevations, and lastly, controlling the establishment of big towns in high landslide vulnerability zones
• In the northeastern hill states, wherein Jhumming (Slash and Burn/Shifting Cultivation) is still practised, terrace agriculture must be promoted

Disaster Management Act 2005

The Disaster Management Act, 2005, defines disaster as a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence affecting any area, arising from natural or man-made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, environment, and is of such nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area. Enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and establishment of National Institute of Disaster Management are some examples of the positive steps taken by the Government of India in terms of dealing with the disasters. 

Conclusion

Disasters can be natural or because of various human interventions. One can reduce it with sustainable development but cannot totally avoid it. Hence, It is best to have a disaster mitigation management plan in place dealing with pre-disaster management, disaster management and post disaster relief operations. These measures have special significance to a country like India, which has about two-third of its geographical area and equal proportion of its population, vulnerable to landslides.