Landslide mitigation
Topic: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management in India · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Natural Hazards and Disasters: Causes, Consequences and Management"
Meaning
Landslide mitigation means steps that reduce the damage from landslides. Each landslide depends on local rocks, slopes, rain and plant cover, so the steps must suit each area:
- Limit roads, dams and big settlements on risky slopes.
- Keep farming to valleys and gentle slopes.
- Plant forests on a large scale, because tree roots hold soil together.
- Build bunds (low earth walls) to slow down runoff.
- In the northeast, use terrace farming (flat steps cut into a hillside) instead of jhum (shifting cultivation, where forest is cleared and burnt for farming).
Prevention matters because landslides are hard and costly to predict.
Example
In the hills of the northeast, such as Nagaland and Mizoram, changing from jhum to terrace farming keeps soil on the slopes. This makes landslides less likely.
Related concepts
- Landslide
- Landslide vulnerability zones
- Landslides in the Himalayas and Western Ghats
- Malpa landslide
- Landslide Atlas of India
- Land subsidence
- Joshimath land subsidence (2023)
- Wayanad landslides (2024)