Disaster and Environment: Chapter test

Landslides in the Himalaya and Western Ghats

About 0.42 million sq km, or 12.6% of India’s land area excluding snow-covered area, is prone to landslides. Of this, 0.18 million sq km is in the North East Himalaya (including Darjeeling and Sikkim), 0.14 million sq km in the North West Himalaya (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir), 0.09 million sq km in the Western Ghats and Konkan hills, and 0.01 million sq km in the Eastern Ghats (Araku, Andhra Pradesh). The Himalayan part also lies in seismic zones IV and V, so earthquakes can trigger slides (Geological Survey of India, Bhusanket).

GSI, the nodal agency for landslide studies, has mapped landslide susceptibility at 1:50,000 scale over about 4.3 lakh sq km in parts of 19 States/UTs and has information on about 91,000 historical landslides (PIB, 20 August 2025, Release 2158420).

Mains 2021: Differentiate the causes of landslides in the Himalayan region and Western Ghats. Mains 2021 The Himalaya is young, fractured and seismically active; in the Western Ghats steep slopes and heavy monsoon rain on deeply weathered soil are the main triggers.

Mains 2026: Discuss how the contradiction between ‘rapid infrastructure development’ and ‘disaster-risk reduction’ in ecologically-sensitive areas of India can be managed, with suitable examples.

Disaster risk reduction and the Sendai Framework

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held from 14 to 18 March 2015 in Sendai, Japan. It succeeded the Hyogo Framework for Action. It has seven global targets and four priorities, and progress is tracked through 38 global indicators (Sendai Framework text; UNDRR).

Source: Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, paragraph 18. These are targets, not results.

The four priorities are: (1) understanding disaster risk; (2) strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk; (3) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and (4) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to ‘Build Back Better’ in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Mains 2024: What is disaster resilience? How is it determined? Describe various elements of a resilience framework. Also mention the global targets of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015- 2030). Mains 2024

Mains 2018: Describe various measures taken in India for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) before and after signing ‘Sendai Framework for DRR (2015-2030)’. How is this framework different from ‘Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005’? Mains 2018

Mains 2020: Discuss the recent measures initiated in disaster management by the Government of India departing from the earlier reactive approach. Mains 2026: “Community participation is the cornerstone of effective disaster management ”. Analyse this statement with suitable examples from India.