Landslides in Chittagong

Landslides is a natural phenomena, But it is more viable or accelerated by human action.

Land slide is a burning issue for recent years. It is now a great concern in south-eastern
parts of Bangladesh as Sylhet, MoluviBazar, Habigang, Chittagong and CHT. It can
define as the downward movement of a large mass of earth or rocks from a hill or
mountain due to natural variability and human activity. Landslide is not a new theme in
the context of Chittagong. During the last three decades, Chittagong suffered about 12
times landslides. In of them in 1999, 11 June 2007 and 19 August 2008 are more
hazardous landslides. Death toll during the last three decades is 200 and occurred a lot of
economy losses. Behind the factors or causes of landslide is topography, weaking of
slopes through saturation by water, steeping of slope by erosion, properties of soil (sandy
soil), torrential rain, and thunderstorm. It is remarkable that the behind factors of
landslide in Chittagong are more accelerated by human activity as; indiscriminately hill
cutting for housing and brick field, deforestation, lack of vegetation cover in hills, lack of
appropriate laws and legislation and its implementation by respective authorities. I think
it was proper time to build a strength policy or remedy measure how we can mitigate
losses by this disaster. At first we have to identify vulnerable areas by GIS based hazard
mapping, plans to shift the people who are under risk to the safe area, kick of site and
service scheme for urban poor, hill cutting should be totally stopped, no agricultural
cultivation should be allowed on hills, proper plantation of trees and creation of green
belts on hills, quick drainage of rainwater. Lastly, local administration should be more
active and people's awareness must be raised to avoid repetition of such incident in
future.

Md. Abdus Sabur (Hasan)

MS student
Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies
University of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331
Mobile no: 01711025096
E-mail: sabur_bd01@yahoo.com