Kerala: The Most Landslide-Prone State In India
As the landslide-hit Wayanad district in Kerala undergoes its fifth day of rescue operations, many are still feared trapped under the debris. The death toll has crossed the 340 mark, with nearly 250 people still missing. According to reports, around 341 autopsies have been completed and 146 bodies have been successfully identified.
Rescue operations are underway with the 190-foot-long Bailey Bridge strengthening the movement of heavy machinery and ambulances.
Read Also: “Everything Lost”: Chilling Stories Of Tragedy-Hit Wayanad
While Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the tragedy could have been avoided if the state government had adhered to the warnings given by the IMD and other agencies, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan refuted the claims. He said that neither the Geological Survey of India (GSI) nor the Central Water Commission (CWC) had announced any flood or landslide warnings.
With the effects of climate change intensifying with each passing day, the risk of landslides is also increasing. A team from IIT-Madras who studied India’s connection with landslides noted that the country accounts for roughly 8 percent of global fatalities due to landslides. Following the devastating 2013 Kedarnath landslide and floods, the country started paying attention to the significant danger caused by the phenomenon.
Intense rainfall, large-scale destruction of forest area, road and bridge building, unscientific construction and haphazard changes of land use are some of the triggering factors that cause landslide. Soil topography, slope angles and more also contribute to making some regions in India more vulnerable to landslides than other areas.
States Most Susceptible To Landslides In India
Between 2015 and 2022, India witnessed around 3,782 landslides. Out of these, a whopping 59.2 percent—that is, 2,239 landslides—occurred in Kerala alone. Following Kerala is West Bengal with 376 landslides. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka experienced 196 and 194 landslides, respectively.
Jammu and Kashmir recorded 184 landslides while Assam and Himachal Pradesh saw 169 and 101 landslides, respectively.
Landslides in India took the lives of 3,291 people between 2013 and 2023. Of these, Kerala accounted for 270 causalities. The National Crime Records Bureau data highlights the fluctuating trend in landslide-related deaths in the southern state.
While in 2019, the state reported 72 deaths, the number slightly dipped to 70 deaths in 2020 before rising to 78 in 2023. However, the Wayanad landslide is one of the worst incidents in the state, with over 300 dead.
Read Also: “No Red Alerts”: X Fact Checks Amit Shah’s “Early Warnings” Claim For Wayanad Landslides
According to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) National Remote Sensing Centre, the southern state is prone to disasters like landslides. Four of the top ten districts in India with the highest susceptibility to landslides are in Kerala – Palakkad, Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram. Further, all of the districts in Kerala fall in the list of 147 districts prone to landslides.
