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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

12/03/23 10:15 AM IST

Landslide Atlas of India

In News
  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently released the Landslide Atlas of India, a detailed guide identifying landslide hotspots in the country.
About Landslide Atlas
  • The Landslide Atlas of India is prepared by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).
  • NRSC is one of the primary centres of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space (DOS).
  • NRSC has created a pan-India database of ~80,000 landslides those occurred during last two decades using satellite data.
  • This database contains both seasonal landslides and event-based landslides.
  • It is a rich collection of landslide inventory which will help user departments in prioritisation of developmental activities in tectonically and ecologically sensitive mountainous areas in India.
Major Recommendations
  • Uttarakhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh reported the highest number of landslides during 1998 – 2022.
  • Mizoram topped the list, recording 12,385 landslide events in the past 25 years, of which 8,926 were recorded in 2017 alone.
  • Likewise, 2,071 events of the total 2,132 landslides reported in Nagaland during this period occurred during the 2017 monsoon season.
  • Manipur, too, showed a similar trend, wherein 4,559 out of 5,494 landslide events were experienced during the rainy season of 2017.
  • Of the total 690, Tamil Nadu suffered 603 landslide events in 2018 alone.
Uttarakhand
  • Uttarakhand’s fragility was recently exposed during the land subsidence events reported from Joshimath since January.
  • The state has experienced the second highest number (11,219) of landslides since 1998.
Kerala
  • Kerala has been consistently reporting massive landslides since it suffered the century’s worst floods in 2018.
  • The year-wise landslide events here are 2018 (5,191), 2019 (756), 2020 (9) and 2021 (29).
Landslide
  • A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope.
  • Landslides are a type of "mass wasting," which denotes any down-slope movement of soil and rock under the direct influence of gravity.
  • Landslides occur mainly in mountainous terrains where there are conducive conditions of soil, rock, geology and slope.
  • Natural Causes that trigger it include heavy rainfall, earthquakes, snow melting and undercutting of slopes due to flooding.
  • Landslides can also be caused by Anthropogenic Activities such as excavation, cutting of hills and trees, excessive infrastructure development, and overgrazing by cattle.
Source- Indian Express

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