The recent landslides tragedy in the Wayanad district of Kerala claimed over 400 lives, and 150 people are still missing. In addition, 310 hectares of farmland have been severely affected. This is not the first time Kerala has experienced such a devastating landslide.
Kerala’s geographical location, erratic rainfall pattern, and human activities leading to deforestation and converting forests into agricultural lands, as well as increasing construction and mining activities, have led to the increasing frequency of landslides.
Thirteen out of Kerala’s 14 districts are prone to landslides in varying degrees. Kerala also accounts for close to 60 per cent of the landslides that have occurred in various States of the country between 2015 and 2022 (Ministry of Earth Sciences, Loksabha, September 23 2020, and July 27, 2022). The Himalayan States, too, are very landslide-prone.
Apart from the rising frequency, landslides have also caused large-scale damage to public transport and private properties and threatened human life and livelihood. India lost around 22,497 human lives due to landslides from 1980 to 2019.
In the same period, 8,438 people were killed in Maharashtra which is the highest death toll among the states, followed by Uttar Pradesh (2,124), Gujarat (1,813), Madhya Pradesh (1367), Himachal Pradesh (1,233), Rajasthan (933), Kerala (893) and Chhattisgarh (62) with the lowest landslide fatalities (Minister of Home Affairs).
Not only India but other developing countries are adversely impacted by landslides. According to the EM-DAT database, around 51 per cent of landslides have occurred in seven developing countries — China, Indonesia, Colombia, India, the Philippines, Nepal, and Peru, affecting 12 million people.
In sum, the available evidence indicates that the frequency of landslides has risen due to extreme weather events, environmental degradation from human interference, and other human activities.
The human and economic costs are often neglected by policymakers, government officials, academia, and the media. The reason is that landslides are considered localised natural events in India and, hence, do not attract large-scale media attention.
Govt measures
In the past couple of years, the government has taken several measures to minimise the impact of landslides. First, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) under the Ministry of Mines implemented the National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (NLSM) Programme to prepare landslide susceptibility mapping in different states and developed the Landslide Early Warning System (LEWS) in 2014-15.
Second, using satellite data, the Department of Space prepared the “Landslide Atlas of India” to identify vulnerable districts due to landslides and assess the overall damage due to landslides.
As we consider the case of the Wayanad landslides, the current policy measures seem inadequate to minimise the adverse effects of disasters. In such a scenario, the government has devised additional measures to mitigate the future impact of landslides.
First, the government has started maintaining a national disaster database at the district and Taluk levels, which includes information on human fatalities, damage to private and public properties, and the frequency and severity of disasters. These data can help policymakers to implement policies to mitigate disaster impacts.
Second, it is crucial to create a massive awareness programme related to the adverse effects of landslides with the help of local administration, NGOs, and civil society.
A third and most important measure is to improve the early warning system for predicting landslides and for accurate rainfall prediction, particularly in landslide-prone areas, with the help of advanced technology.
Fourth, strict laws should be implemented to protect ecologically sensitive areas and prevent human activities in landslide-prone areas.
Finally, better coordination, regardless of political differences, between Centre, State, and Local administration is essential to mitigate the adverse impact of natural disasters in the future.
The writers are on the Economics faculty of FLAME University. Views expressed are personal