Kerala recorded the highest number of landslides with 2,239 landslides out of 3,782 major landslides in the country in the past 7 years, the ministry of earth sciences told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Based on inputs from the ministry of mines, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) collected data on 3,782 major landslides in the country during the period. For all these landslides, GSI collected preliminary geo-parametric attributes for each of the landslides, including studying its impacts, future vulnerability etc. GSI also carried out a national landslide susceptibility mapping (NLSM) from 2014-15 and prepared a 1: 50,000 scale Landslide susceptibility mapping of an area of 4.3 lakh sq km in different Landslide-prone states. GSI also collected historical information on 8,645 landslide polygons using both remote sensing (RS) and field-based source data for 29,738 landslides.
"Early onset of south-west monsoon is an inherent property observed in the inter-annual variability of monsoon behaviour. This year the monsoon onset over Kerala was on May 29 against the normal date of June 1, 3 days ahead of the normal date, and it covered the entire country on July 2, against the normal date of July 8 i.e. six days ahead of the normal date for monsoon coverage for the entire country.”
“Changes in rainfall patterns may impact agriculture if it exceeds the critical limit. However, the severity of impact depends upon various factors, such as crop type and variety, location of land and type of soil, stage of crops etc. Appropriate measures during the occurrence of unusual rainfall may save the crops up to a certain extent. IMD runs an operational Agrometeorological Advisory Services (AAS) viz., Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme for the benefit of the farming community in the country,” the ministry said adding that IMD also monitors rainfall situations and weather aberrations including heavy rainfall and issues alerts, warnings for extreme weather events along with suitable remedial measures to the farmers.