12% Indian land prone to landslides as climate change increases the risks

Last year, 264 Indians died in landslides, said a report on accidental deaths and suicides in 2019 by the National Crime Records Bureau

Six days’ relentless rain had saturated the soil on the rolling slopes of Rajamala hamlet in Anamalai hills--which support tea and coffee plantations--in Idukki district of Kerala. On August 6, 2020, the downpour became especially torrential, forcing a portion of the hills to move, triggering a landslide that brought boulders and slurry crashing down on a settlement of tea estate workers in Pettimudi valley, killing 70 people and flattening rows of tin-roofed houses.

Although monsoon rains cause landslides every year, economic activities and the climate crisis are increasing the risk, especially in the Himalayas and the Western Ghats.

Last year,