National Landslide Forecasting Centre

Context

Recently the Union Minister of Coal and Mines inaugurated the National Landslide Forecasting Centre in Kolkata. 

About

• The NLFC is a pioneering initiative aimed at landslide risk mitigation in India and could provide early statistics to local management and groups, update landslide inventories, and integrate real-time rainfall and slope instability statistics for stronger forecasting accuracy.
• He also launched the Bhusanket Web Portal and Bhooskhalan Mobile App so one can facilitate dissemination of applicable data on landslide risks, starting up short-range and medium-range landslide forecasting.

What are Landslides?

• Landslides are a geological phenomenon that includes the sudden and rapid motion of a mass of rock, soil, or particles down a slope beneath the effect of gravity.
• A variety of causes acts as a trigger for a landslide. Some of the foremost causes of landslide can be seen under the subsequent  heads:
  • Natural Causes: Heavy Rainfall, severe ground shaking due to earthquakes, Volcanic Eruptions and erosions.
  • Anthropogenic Causes: Deforestation, Encroachment in Vulnerable Terrains, poorly deliberate excavation sports, and overgrazing with the aid of farm animals.
• Based on the form of movement worried, there are specially four kinds of landslides:
  • Falls: They seek advice from the kind of landslide that involves the disintegration of material from a cliff or steep slope, which then falls down the slope and collects near the bottom.
  • Topples: Under this type of landslide, the falling mass undergoes ahead rotation and movement around an axis or factor at or near the base.
  • Slides: Under this type of landslide, there is a distinct sector of weak spot that separates the shifting fabric from a more solid underlying fabric.

Impacts of Landslides

• Loss of human and animal lives.
• Damage to infrastructure and residences including homes, roads, etc.
• They can bury or wash away agricultural land, thus affecting agriculture.
• The aftermath of landslides may additionally imply the disregionment of local communities.
• Landslides, regularly, block transportation routes consisting of roads. This, then, has its own repercussions.

Landslide Prone Areas in India

• ISRO has recently released the Landslide Atlas of India. As consistent with this atlas, a number of the distinguished statistics concerning landslides in India are as follows:
• India is a number of the pinnacle 5 landslide-susceptible nations within the world.
• Excluding snow-covered areas, around 12.6 percent of India’s geographical land vicinity is liable to landslides.
• A rough break-up of reported landslides in India is as follows:
  • About 66.5 percent from the North-Western Himalayas
  • About 18.8 percentage from the North-Eastern Himalayas
  • About 14.7 percent from the Western Ghats.
• As per the Landslide Atlas of India, primary landslide prone areas in India are as follows:
  • The Northeastern Region (comprises approximately 50 percent of the full landslide inclined regions in India)
  • Areas of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir lying alongside the Himalayas.
  • Areas of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu mendacity alongside the Western Ghats.
  • The Araku region in Andhra Pradesh along the Eastern Ghats.

Initiatives Taken

• The Disaster Management Act, of 2005 offers a complete felony and institutional framework for the management of diverse disasters consisting of landslides.
• The National Landslide Risk Management Strategy (2019) covers all aspects of landslide disaster hazard reduction and management, which includes threat mapping, monitoring, and early caution structures.
• The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued Guidelines on Landslide Hazard Management (2009) that define the steps that have to be taken to lessen the chance of landslides.
• The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) has been supplying potential building and different aid to various national and state-level catastrophe control authorities.
• Efforts were made toward higher prediction of weather. E.g. Ensemble Prediction System. This will help with expected damages like landslides.

Source: PIB

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. The Himalayas are highly prone to landslides.” Discuss the causes and suggest suitable measures of mitigation. (2016)

Download as PDF