{"id":33405,"date":"2023-03-11T11:57:28","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T06:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33405"},"modified":"2025-04-19T22:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:33:14","slug":"landslide-atlas-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/landslide-atlas-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Landslide Atlas of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is a Landslide and what Causes one?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How are Landslides Classified and Mapped?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How Prone is India to Landslides?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Landslide Atlas of India<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What does the Landslide Atlas Suggest?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Central government formally outlined the Digital India Act, 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is a Landslide and what Causes one?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope.<\/li>\n<li>Landslides are a type of &#8220;<strong>mass wasting<\/strong>,&#8221; which denotes any down-slope movement of soil and rock under the <i><strong>direct influence of gravity<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Landslides occur mainly in mountainous terrains where there are conducive conditions of soil, rock, geology and slope.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Natural Causes<\/strong> that trigger it include heavy rainfall, earthquakes, snow melting and undercutting of slopes due to flooding.<\/li>\n<li>Landslides can also be caused by <strong>Anthropogenic Activities<\/strong> such as excavation, cutting of hills and trees, excessive infrastructure development, and overgrazing by cattle.<\/li>\n<li>In India, rainfall-induced landslide events are more common.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How are Landslides Classified and Mapped?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Landslides are broadly classified based on the \u2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/J-Du3ImeS0lFnzD1d7x4n5gXQwLgr84wzbjWJvWO-x2cmjQMiHwtFtZRDhk3lP2wPga477UXXatTo9rT2kNeYoBWxsCOhEovs7ZL1UHyDLNxx3ipNPQ01jJopAtQWfN2_cJgtkyKpomM\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Types of Landslides<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How Prone is India to Landslides?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India is considered <i><strong>among the top five landslide-prone countries in the world<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>In India, <i><strong>at least one death per 100 sq. km is reported in a year due to a landslide event<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Rainfall variability pattern is the single biggest cause for landslides in the country, with the Himalayas and the Western Ghats remaining highly vulnerable.<\/li>\n<li>Excluding snow covered areas, <i><strong>approximately 12.6 per cent of the country\u2019s geographical land area (0.42 million sq. km) is prone to landslides<\/strong><\/i>.\n<ul>\n<li>As many as 66.5 per cent of the landslides are reported from the North-western Himalayas,<\/li>\n<li>About 18.8 per cent from the North-eastern Himalayas, and<\/li>\n<li>About 14.7 per cent from the Western Ghats.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Landslide Atlas of India<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Landslide Atlas of India is prepared by the <strong>National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>NRSC is one of the primary centres of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space (DOS).<\/li>\n<li>NRSC has created a <i><strong>pan-India database of ~80,000 landslides those occurred during last two decades using satellite data<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>This database contains both seasonal landslides and event-based landslides.<\/li>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What does the Landslide Atlas Suggest?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/qI4qI4YRAVI0Ij9oFUelHDria5VIcjdkrgI3OTzLGMfF5W8os0EeVMslgO5BbLKU1PIFPtrXeDVIa4l4KtubotpPaVFwD4t_FpX7jwkmQL4oKrmeXKlOvFw8hzdj6H_Tl4dLwYdnob9i\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: India\u2019s vulnerability to landslides<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Uttarakhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh reported the highest number of landslides during 1998 \u2013 2022.<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>Mizoram topped the list, recording 12,385 landslide events in the past 25 years<\/strong><\/i>, of which 8,926 were recorded in 2017 alone.<\/li>\n<li>Likewise, 2,071 events of the total 2,132 landslides reported in Nagaland during this period occurred during the 2017 monsoon season.<\/li>\n<li>Manipur, too, showed a similar trend, wherein 4,559 out of 5,494 landslide events were experienced during the rainy season of 2017.<\/li>\n<li>Of the total 690, Tamil Nadu suffered 603 landslide events in 2018 alone.<\/li>\n<li>Among all these states, an alarming situation is emerging from Uttarakhand and Kerala.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Uttarakhand \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Uttarakhand\u2019s fragility was recently exposed during the land subsidence events reported from Joshimath since January.<\/li>\n<li>The state has experienced the <i><strong>second highest number (11,219) of landslides since 1998<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kerala \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Kerala has been consistently reporting massive landslides since it suffered the century\u2019s worst floods in 2018.<\/li>\n<li>The year-wise landslide events here are 2018 (5,191), 2019 (756), 2020 (9) and 2021 (29).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Most Vulnerable District?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>From the events and images obtained, the NRSC ranked <strong>Rudraprayag<\/strong> in Uttarakhand at the top of 147 vulnerable districts.<\/li>\n<li>It has the highest landslide density in the country, along with having the highest exposure to total population and number of houses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What causes landslides?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Landslides are caused by disturbances in the natural stability of a slope. They can accompany heavy rains or follow droughts, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong> <strong>What is the difference between endogenic &amp; exogenic forces?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Endogenic forces produce after-effects that are visible only after it causes sudden damage. Exogenic forces create changes visible over a period of thousands or millions of years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/landslide-atlas-what-states-regions-are-most-vulnerable-8489965\/#:~:text=Uttakarkhand%2C%20Kerala%2C%20Jammu%20and%20Kashmir,were%20recorded%20in%202017%20alone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Landslide Atlas of India: Which states, regions are most vulnerable<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Video:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jDqXgopte-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jDqXgopte-0<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A landslide is defined as the movement of a mass of rock, debris, or earth down a slope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}