Unusually high rainfall and unscientific land use cause landslides year after year in the hill districts of Kerala. The Geological Survey of India has completed a new landslide susceptibility map for all landslide-prone districts except Idukki, for which work is progressing under the National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping project. There were 1,362 landslides and 700 landslides in these two years, respectively. Idukki district, with 1,048 landslides, topped the vulnerability chart in this period. The researchers of the Geological Survey of India who had studied 10 landslides in Idukki between June and July in 2018 had cited human interference and unscientific land use among the ‘geo-scientific causes’ that triggered landslides.

Source: The Hindu August 28, 2020 18:45 UTC