Landslide Atlas of India: Which states, regions are most vulnerable

Last Updated12/03/2023

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently released the Landslide Atlas of India, a detailed guide identifying landslide hotspots in the country.

Prepared by: National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).
NRSC is one of the primary centres of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space (DOS).
NRSC has created a pan-India database of ~80,000 landslides those occurred during last two decades using satellite data.
This database contains both seasonal landslides and event-based landslides.
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.

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Uttarakhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh reported the highest number of landslides during 1998 – 2022.
Mizoram topped the list, recording 12,385 landslide events in the past 25 years, of which 8,926 were recorded in 2017 alone.
Likewise, 2,071 events of the total 2,132 landslides reported in Nagaland during this period occurred during the 2017 monsoon season.
Manipur, too, showed a similar trend, wherein 4,559 out of 5,494 landslide events were experienced during the rainy season of 2017.
Of the total 690, Tamil Nadu suffered 603 landslide events in 2018 alone.

Uttarakhand:
- Uttarakhand’s fragility was recently exposed during the land subsidence events reported from Joshimath since January.
- The state has experienced the second highest number (11,219) of landslides since 1998.
Kerala:
- Kerala has been consistently reporting massive landslides since it suffered the century’s worst floods in 2018.
- The year-wise landslide events here are 2018 (5,191), 2019 (756), 2020 (9) and 2021 (29).
Most Vulnerable District?
- From the events and images obtained, the NRSC ranked Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand at the top of 147 vulnerable districts.
- It has the highest landslide density in the country, along with having the highest exposure to total population and number of houses.