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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

03/08/24 14:55 PM IST

Why do landslides occur?

In News
  • This year has seen a series of landslides around the world — from Yunnan in China in January to Papua New Guinea in May that killed more than 2,000 to Sulawesi island in Indonesia and Wayanad in Kerala in July.
Landslides in India
  • India accounts for about 8% of global fatalities due to landslides, and during the period 2001-21, landslides caused 847 deaths and displaced thousands, according to a team from IIT-Madras that has worked on the phenomenon.
  • Despite the significant number of fatalities however, landslides were not given enough importance in India until the 2013 Kedarnath landslide and floods.
  • The IIT-M team has developed a high-resolution India Landslide Susceptibility Map (ILSM) using machine learning models.
  • According to a paper published in IIT-M’s Shaastra magazine, the ILSM shows that 13.17% of the country is susceptible to landslides, which is more than what was believed previously.
  • And 4.75% area is considered “very highly susceptible”
  • Sikkim has the largest land area (57.6%) that is landslide-prone, while outside of the Himalayas, Kerala is the most vulnerable state with over 14% of its land mass in the “very high susceptibility” category.
  • “Some areas in the Eastern Ghats, around Odisha, too, are susceptible – which previous studies had missed.
  • Arunachal Pradesh has the largest susceptible area (31,845 sq km), which other models had missed because of paucity of data on landslides,”
  • In 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released a “Landslide Atlas of India”, identifying the landslide hotspots around the country. Among the highly vulnerable areas in the atlas were the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.
Causes of landslides
  • Landslides are natural phenomena that usually occur in mountainous regions with steep slopes.
  • During a landslide, large amounts of rock, boulders, loose mud, soil, and debris roll down slopes and hillsides, gathering great momentum and often taking vegetation or buildings along.
  • Landslides are seen as being caused by (i) conditioning factors and (ii) triggering factors.
  • CONDITIONING FACTORS are related to the soil topography, rocks, geomorphology, and slope angles, among other factors. These factors make some parts of the country more vulnerable to landslides than other parts.
  • TRIGGERING FACTORS are intense rainfall, and anthropological activities such as thoughtless changes of land use, road and bridge building, haphazard and unscientific construction, and large-scale destruction of forests.
Source- Indian Express

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