Landslide Threat: How Long Will Authorities Stop at Mere Warnings?

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: For the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Kamrup Metro, issuing warning notices to the families residing in landslide-prone areas in the 19 hillocks in and around Guwahati seems just ritualistic, without doing anything tangible to solve the menace. Before every monsoon, the DDMA issues warning notices to families residing in the 366 landslide-prone spots in the city. However, every year, people lose their lives in landslides, and the DDMA sits tied without doing anything tangible when there is no monsoon.

The irony remains that Assam Engineering College (AEC) conducted a survey and indentified these 366 landslide-prone areas and handed the list to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) way back in 2015. After that the ASDMA has no such survey, and the DDMA, Kamrup Metro, issues warning notices based on that decade-old survey report. With construction taking place unabated in the hillocks in and around Guwahati, unscientific earth-cutting has been a continuous process, aggravating the situation further with the addition of more landslide-prone areas. However, the DDMA continues to stick to the same decade-old list.

Earth-cutting and the construction of new houses on hillocks occur in Guwahati despite the administration's presence, yet their efforts to address the issue are barely noticeable. This is not all. The administration takes the issue casually even when people lodge complaints against earth-cutting and construction activities. The rampant earth-cutting on the hillocks is fraught with the risk of landslides, posing a threat to the houses in the foothills.

In 2012, the Geology Department of Gauhati University extended some recommendations to the state government on ways to check landslides through plantation, unscientific earth cutting, etc. Neither the DDMA nor the state government paid any heed to those recommendations. The DDMA just issues warnings on the eve of every monsoon. Families living in landslide-prone areas also take the risk of remaining in those areas during the monsoon season. According to official statistics, landslides claimed over 200 lives in Guwahati from 1994 to 2025.

According to DDMA, some of the landslide-prone areas in Guwahati are Fatasil, Gotanagar, Kahilipara, Kalapahar, Kharghuli, Narengi, Noonmati, Khanapara, Santipur, etc.

The moot question remains: "Why have the authorities concerned not taken any preventive and remedial measures, such as shifting families from landslide-prone areas to safer areas or measures to prevent landslides, over the years?" Why do not the authorities concerned prevent people from encroaching upon lands on hills in the initial stages? As if to complicate the situation, the authorities provide the encroachers all utility services. In the case of earth-cutting on patta land on hills, why do the authorities concerned not properly monitor to ensure scientific earth-cutting?

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