Landslides will continue unless there is accountability, say scientists, environmentalists

Published 8 July 2026 · science

Preventive measures recommended by the Landslide Study Committee in its March 2021 report Protecting natural forest cover and enhancing green cover Keeping natural streams and

Preventive measures recommended by the Landslide Study Committee in its March 2021 report Protecting natural forest cover and enhancing green cover Keeping natural streams and rainwater channels intact, drainage management Regulation of indiscriminate use of land digging and electric tree cutting machines Clearly laid out land use policy, including planning and mapping, slope stability, SOP for terrain altering activities The delayed arrival of the southwest monsoon has brought with it a fresh spell of landslides in the Western Ghats. While Wayanad in Kerala has already witnessed a debris slip that claimed three lives, heavy rainfall triggered a landslide near the KSRTC bus stand in Madikeri, Kodagu district. Earlier, three people died when a retaining wall slipped on a building at Garodi-Naguri in Mangaluru on July 1. These back-to-back incidents, occurring within a short span of the monsoon season, which has seen a revival in some areas after a rain-deficient June, have prompted scientists and environmentalists to question whether lessons from the devastating landslide episodes witnessed in the same regions in recent years have gone unlearnt. Combination of factors C.S. Patil from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the events could be a result of a combination of geological factors combined with meteorological and topographical changes: a large quantum of rainfall over a short period, the loss of vegetation coverage and deep root cover, and the nature of the soil, among others.

T.V. Ramachandra from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), concurred. “Our earlier study in the Western Ghats reveals changes in the rainfall pattern with higher instances of high-intensity rainfall, which triggers mudslides and landslides.” He added that though the triggering factor is high-intensity rainfall, the prime causal factors are unplanned developmental activities — linear projects such as roads, tunnels and others — in ecologically fragile regions, undertaken without considering the carrying capacity of the region and without implementing stringent conservation measures. He said accelerated large-scale land degradation leading to deforestation, removal of native forest species — whose roots would have provided structural stability by binding the soil in fragile regions — and alteration of slope integrity have further contributed to the problem. He also pointed to the disruption of drainage networks, with houses and housing layouts being constructed in the path of water flow in Chikkamagaluru, Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada. A recent IIT Dharwad report, Assessing Future Landslide Susceptibility and Risk Escalations Under Changing LULC and Climate Conditions in the Western Ghats of Karnataka in India, also stated that the intensity and frequency of fatal landslides in the Western Ghats are adversely influenced by human-induced land-use modifications and climate change.