Nearly 100 people have been killed in a devastating landslide that hit a remote village in Papua New Guinea. The accident happened in the midst of heavy rains, which led to strong landslides, burying villages and cutting off the road to the affected area. The village, isolated by rugged terrain, faces major challenges in restoration and rehabilitation. The early response activities and the national disaster management departments have started taking actions respectively to handle the situation.
Against this backdrop, we take a look at some of the deadliest landslides of the 21st century.
On February 17, 2006, massive debris flows and landslides occurred in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte, causing extensive damage and loss of life. The deadly landslide (or debris flow) followed a 10-day period of heavy rain and a small earthquake (magnitude 2.6 on the Richter scale). A total of 1,126 people died.
The Chittagong mudslides occurred in 2007 in the port city of Chittagong in southeastern Bangladesh. On June 11, 2007, heavy monsoon rains caused mudslides that entered the parks around the city's hills. Experts had previously warned of increased landslides due to the Bangladesh government's failure to stop hill-cutting operations in Chittagong. 123 casualties were reported.
Shortly before 9 am on September 6, 2008, several landslides rocked Duweika after eight large rocks, the size of a small house, weighing up to 70 tonnes broke off from the cliff side of a pleateau in the Manshiyat Nasser district of Cairo. The ensuing rockslides destroyed the houses of the village of Ezbet Bekhit in down. The first landslide was also the worst, and left 166 houses destroyed. 119 people died and 55 others were injured according to official statistics. Local eyewitness reports from residents and city councilors indicate that the death toll was much higher. Soon after, 266 families lost their homes and were forced to camp in shelters in local and distant playgrounds. A series of small landslides also occurred over the next three weeks.
In 2009, Typhoon Morakot brought rain to southern Taiwan, especially to Siaolin. The earthen defences upstream of the Siaolin River failed, leading to massive mudslides. 471 people died in this disaster.
In 2010, Gansu in China's Zhouqu County witnessed a deadly mudslide at midnight on August 8. The floods occurred after decades unsustainable logging practices that left the region unable to absorb heavy rainfall. More than 1,471 people died in this disaster, while 294 missing were never found. Those missing were presumed dead eventually as authorities ordered residents to stop searching for survivors or bodies to prevent the spread of the disease in the aftermath of the disaster.
On March 1, 2010, the Bududa District inn eastern Uganda witnessed a landlside that left more than 100 people dead. The landslide affected villages on the slopes of Mount Elgon, including Nameti, Kubewo and Nankobe. Many areas of the affected villages were buried by landslides— houses, markets and a church were destroyed and many roads were also blocked.
In June 2013, midday rains in Uttarakhand triggered flash floods and landslides, becoming the India's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Severe flooding triggered by debris-blocked rivers lead to major overflows, flooding Kedarnath and the surrounding areas. The most devastation took place on June 13, and by July 13, over 5,700 people had been "presumed dead". Later, official figures put the total death toll at 6,054.
On May 2, 2014, two landslides occurred in the Argo District of Afghanistan. The number of deaths is uncertain, but estimates put the number between 350 and 2,700. About 300 houses were buried and more than 14,000 people were affected. Rescuers who responded to the first mudslide were exposed to the second mudslide, which hampered rescue efforts.
On July 30, 2014, an earthquake occurred in Malin village in the Pune district of Maharashtra. The landslide, which occurred early in the morning while residents were sleeping, is believed to have been caused by heavy rains. The ensuing disaster killed at least 151 people. Rain continued after the landslide, making rescue efforts difficult. Although initial reports said the landslide killed 17 people, authorities said the death toll was more than 150.
On August 2, 2014, heavy rain caused a landslide in the Sunkoshi River in Nepal, killing 156 people and blocking the river to form an artificial lake in Sindhupalchok district. The Araniko highway, the main (and only) route for the flow of goods and people to China, was blocked by landslides, destroying 5 km of the highway and causing traffic problems. The landslide, 5.5 million cubic meters in size, also swept away twenty-two buildings.
On October 1, 2015, heavy rain caused landslides in the village of El Cambray Dos in Guatemala, 15 km east of the capital Guatemala City. The landslides killed at least 280 people and left 70 people missing. The landslide flattened most of the village, leaving some areas below 15 m (49 ft) of soil and vegetation.
On November 21, 2015, a massive landslide in Hpakant in northern Myanmar killed at least 116 people near a jade mine, and left another 100 missing. The landslide occurred early in the morning, when a pile of artificial earth from a nearby jade mine collapsed. Most of the dead were residents of a small village near the dump, as well as miners and those scavenging the wasteland for jade scraps to sell. The cause of the collapse is unknown.
After days of rain, the city of Salgar in Colombia witnessed a massive landslide that left 83 dead and at least 30 missing. The landslide was so devastating that bodies of victims were found as far away as 100 km from the site of the disaster, borne by a river which was also affected by the landslide. It was the worst disaster to hit the country after the 1999 earthquake.
Days of torrential rain in and around Freetown in Sierra Leone precipitated a massive landslide on the morning of August 14, 2017. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed in the city, killing 1,141 people and rendering over 3,000 homeless.
A couple of years after the deadly landslides in Salgar, Mocoa in Colombia witnessed an even bigger disaster after floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains decimated the town. At least 336 people were killed in the incident, which also left 400 injured and 200 missing. It was the third deadliest disaster in Colombian history.
On June 12, 2017, heavy rains caused several landslides and floods in Rangamati, Chittagong and Bandarban—three hilly regions of Bangladesh—killing at least 152 people. The weather also caused power outages and disrupted telephone lines, making it difficult for rescuers to reach affected communities. Reaz Ahmed, head of Bangladesh's disaster management agency, called the landslides the worst in the country's history.
Half a decade after the Hpakant jade mine disaster that killed over 116 people, an even deadlier disaster befell Hpakant on July 2, 2020. This time, torrential rainfall caused a pile of mining waste to fall into a lake, triggering a 20-foot wave of mud and water that buried 175-200 miners working nearby.
The tourist destination of Petropolis in Brazil, 68 km from the city of Rio de Janeiro, saw a deadly disaster on February 15, 2022 when heavy rains triggered massive flooding and landslides in the city. The disaster levelled parts of the city, leaving at least 231 people dead.
(Raunak Mukherjee is a BA Media and Journalism student at Christ University who interned with Deccan Herald in summer 2024.)