Dr. Vinod Kumar
Landslides (also called «Landslips») are a major threat to the environment, human settlements and infrastructure. They are mostly hill events and cover a wide variety of land forms and processes involving the movement of soil and rock downslope under the influence of gravity, Landslide phenomenon is experienced in all the hill ranges of India. The Himalayas have been observed to be the scene of most frequent landslide incidents, mainly because Himalayas are a comparatively young mountain system and the rock structure is still weak and fragile. The other hill ranges in India can be grouped in decreasing order of landslide proneness, such as: Northeast hill ranges, Western Ghats and Nilgiris, Eastern Ghats and Vindhyas. Landslides cause extensive damage to houses, roads, buildings, forests, plantations and agricultural fields. The debris originating from landslides results in siltation of streams and rivers, inducing further problems of erosion and floods, Damages to structures, loss of lives as well as properties occur extensively every year as a result of landslides, A majority of landslides are triggered by natural causes, including substantial rainfalls, cloud bursts, earthquakes, etc. In this research paper discuss the problem of landslide disaster management on the basis of two specific case studies. These instances have been selected from areas where the incidence of landslides is high. One case pertains to the Northeastern region, the Naga Hills in Manipur-Nagaland and the other case belongs to the Shiwalik Range in the Northwest of the country.