Describe the various causes and the effects of landslides. Mention the important components of the National Landslide Risk Management Strategy. (Answer in 250 words)

A landslide is the downslope movement of rock, soil or debris when driving forces exceed slope resistance. India’s young mountains, monsoon and development pressures heighten exposure.

Causes

• Natural triggers include intense rainfall, cloudbursts, earthquakes, snowmelt, weathering and river undercutting.
• Deforestation, road cutting, quarrying, mining, unplanned construction, drainage alteration and slope loading reduce stability.
• Climate change may intensify extreme rainfall and glacial or permafrost-related instability.

Effects

• Deaths, injury, displacement, crop and livestock loss and destruction of houses and roads occur directly.
• Blocked rivers can form landslide dams and flash floods; debris damages hydropower, communication and pipelines.
• Repeated failures isolate communities, raise maintenance costs and degrade watersheds.

National strategy components

• Prepare hazard, susceptibility and risk maps with inventory and monitoring networks.
• Integrate risk zonation into land-use planning, building regulation and infrastructure design.
• Develop rainfall thresholds, early warning, real-time alerts, evacuation plans and community awareness.
• Promote slope stabilisation, drainage, bio-engineering, safe road construction and resilient recovery.
• Strengthen institutional coordination, capacity building, research, insurance and financing.

Slope failure; rainfall threshold; susceptibility mapping; landslide dam; early warning; bio-engineering; land-use planning.