Describe the various causes and the effects of landslides. Mention the important components of the National Landslide Risk Management Strategy.
Approach · directive: “describe / mention”
What it asks · Describe the natural and human causes and the effects of landslides, and list the important components of the National Landslide Risk Management Strategy.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- Describe the causes of landslides: natural and human
- Describe the effects of landslides
- Mention the important components of the National Landslide Risk Management Strategy (NDMA, 2019)
Open with · Landslides are a recurring hazard of India's steep and fragile hills, and human activity increasingly turns rainfall and tremors into disasters.
Cover
- Natural causes: steep slopes, weak or fractured rock, heavy and prolonged rainfall, cloudbursts, earthquakes and snowmelt runoff, especially in young fold mountains.
- Human causes: deforestation, unplanned road-cutting and construction on slopes, mining and quarrying, poor drainage and shifting cultivation.
- Effects: loss of lives and homes, blocked highways and rivers with flash-flood risk, damaged crops, lost livelihoods and tourism, and heavy relief cost.
- Exposure: the Himalaya, North-East, Western Ghats and Nilgiris are most prone; Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala and the North-East see repeated losses.
- NLRMS (NDMA, 2019) covers hazard mapping, monitoring and early warning, awareness, capacity building and training, regulation and policy (mountain-zone regulations), and stabilisation and mitigation, with a proposed centre for landslide management.
- Mitigation on the ground: slope stabilisation with retaining walls and bio-engineering, drainage, no-construction zones on unstable slopes, afforestation and regulated road and hydropower works.
- Community readiness: local early-warning systems, trained village task forces, and NDRF and SDRF preparedness.
Close with · Landslides cannot be eliminated, but mapping, regulated slope use and early warning that reaches the last village can cut losses.
Add value (verified)
- The Geological Survey of India estimates that about 12.6% of India's land area, excluding snow-covered area, is prone to landslide hazard, mostly in the North-East Himalaya, North-West Himalaya and Western Ghats. Landslide Hazard, Bhusanket portal, Geological Survey of India ↗“In India, about 0.42 million sq. km or 12.6% of land area, excluding snow covered area, is prone to landslide hazard. Out of this, 0.18 million sq. km falls in North East Himalaya, including Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2021, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 234 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
A landslide is the downslope movement of rock, debris or earth under gravity; the Geological Survey of India estimates that 12.6% of India's land area, excluding snow-covered area, is landslide-prone, chiefly the Himalaya and the Western Ghats.
Causes
- Natural: steep slopes, weak or fractured rock, heavy and prolonged rainfall, cloudbursts, earthquakes, snowmelt runoff and river undercutting of slope toes, especially in the young fold mountains.
- Human: deforestation, unplanned road-cutting and construction on slopes, mining and quarrying, blocked drainage and shifting cultivation.
Effects
- Loss of lives, homes and farmland; blocked highways and rivers, with flash-flood risk when landslide dams burst.
- Lost livelihoods and tourism, cut-off villages, heavy relief and reconstruction cost, and siltation of rivers and reservoirs downstream.
- Repeated losses in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala, the North-East and the Nilgiris.
National Landslide Risk Management Strategy (NDMA, 2019)
- Hazard mapping: landslide inventories and susceptibility maps.
- Monitoring and early warning systems.
- Awareness programmes.
- Capacity building and training of stakeholders.
- Regulation and policy, including mountain-zone regulations.
- Stabilisation and mitigation of landslides.
- A proposed Centre for Landslide Management.
Mitigation on the ground
- Slope stabilisation with retaining walls, drainage and bio-engineering; no-construction zones on unstable slopes; afforestation; regulated road and hydropower works.
- Community readiness: local early-warning systems, trained village task forces and NDRF and SDRF preparedness.
Landslides cannot be eliminated, but hazard maps, regulated slope use and early warning that reaches the last village can cut the losses sharply.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify). UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.