Question

Using internet, look for incidences of a few landslides that have occurred in India and write about them briefly.

Answer 1

A landslide is the gravitational movement of a mass of rock, or mass of earth or debris, downwards on a slope. It generally occurs when a hilly slope becomes unstable due to natural reasons such as groundwater pressure acting to destabilize the slope, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, erosion, etc.

• The major areas affected by landslides in India are:
• The Western Himalayas (in states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir)
• The Eastern and North-eastern Himalayas (in states of West Bengal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh)
• The Naga-Arakkan Mountain belt (in states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura)
• The Western Ghats region including Nilgiris (in states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala & Tamil Nadu)
• The Plateau margins of the Peninsular India and Meghalaya plateau in North-east India.

Some major landslides that causes havoc in the country are:

• Guwahati Landslide, Assam: The landslide took place on September 18, 1948 due to heavy rains. Over 500 people died in the landslide and according to the reports, the landslide buried an entire village.
• Darjeeling Landslide, West Bengal: The landslide happened around October 4, 1968. The landslide was triggered by floods and the 60 km long highway was cut in 91 parts. As per reports, thousands of people died in the landslide.
• Malpa Landslide, Uttarakhand: Consecutives landslides occurred between August 11 and August 17 in 1998 in the village of Malpa where over 380 people died as the entire village washed away in the landslide. The landslide is one of the worst landslides in India.
• Mumbai Landslide, Maharashtra: The landslide was caused in July 2000. The landslide took place in the suburbs of Mumbai due heavy rains which was followed by land erosion. As per reports around 67 people died and the local trains were also stricken.
• Amboori Landslide, Kerala: The landslide was known as the worst landslide in Kerala's history. The landslide occurred on November 9, 2001 due to heavy rains and around 40 people died in the incident.
• Kedarnath Landslide, Uttarakhand: The landslide took place on June 16, 2013 and was the result of Uttarakhand floods. Over 5700 were reported dead and over 4,200 villages had been affected by the floods and post-floods landslide.
• Malin Landslide, Maharashtra: On 30 July 2014, a landslide occurred in the village of Malin in the Ambegaon taluka of the Pune district in Maharashtra, India. The landslide, which hit early in the morning while residents were asleep, was believed to have been caused by a burst of heavy rainfall, and killed at least 151 people. The landslide was first noticed by a bus driver who drove by the area and saw that the village had been overrun with mud and earth. In addition to those dead, more than 160 people, and possibly up to 200, were believed to have been buried in the landslide in 44 separate houses.