Causes of Landslides in Darjeeling Himalayas during June-July, 2015

Abstract

Landslides are the significant form of natural disaster that causes the loss of properties and lives, especially in the mountainous areas. The mountainous terrains are characterised by high energy with instability and variability of the masses [1]. Landslide differs from the other mass movement processes and it is the movement of the mass occurs primarily along a discrete failure surface. The internally unreformed plane slips the materials and disintegrates the mass and further movement includes the flow element [2]. In India, most of the hilly regions are characterised with the landslide disaster. In the Himalayan region, several avalanche zones are prominent, such as Jammu Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Kumayun, Darjeeling and Sikkim and North-eastern hilly states [3]. In the Himalayan foothills where rainfall is prominent, the occurrence of landslides is significant. The Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya are among the most vulnerable areas of landslides. The main triggering factors (excluding geological and geomorphological) of the landslide are heavy rainfall and seismicity [4]. Of late, landslide disasters have been accelerated by the several anthropogenic activities in this region [1]. However, to mitigate or reduce the occurrences of landslide, landslide susceptibility [5] mapping of landslide hazard [6,7] along with engineering geomorphology [8] are some of the post landslide initiatives.