Deforestation and its effect on Landslides

Deforestation includes conversion of forestland to farms, ranches or urban use. The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics. Only minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crop yields decline and the people spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forests. The fact of rapid deforestation has been one of the major concerns since last decade. In India, the forest cover of the country has been declining since last several years. The impact of these changes on Indian monsoon is still an open question. The influence of deforestation is modelled by the changes in the surface parameters such as land cover, land degradations, etc. Landslides occur as a consequence of various triggering factors. Rainfall is one such factor. But the human intervention like deforestation may cause the soil to lose its capacity and ultimately lead to landslides during heavy rainfall. Slope movements increase due to deforestation, as the roots provide some reinforcement and also remove groundwater. On the other hand, addition of vegetation to slopes can cause slope movement, because the vegetative mass increases the weight of the slope in terms of moisture content. Rapid deforestation and construction work in the hills are some of the reasons behind frequent floods and landslides. Landslides are a severe problem during the rainy season in many mountainous regions in Asia where forests have been cut so that mountain slopes are destabilized. Several areas of Uttarakhand are still cut from the country. Since the industrial age, about half of world’s original forests have been destroyed and millions of animals and living things have been endangered. Despite the improvements in education, information and general awareness of the importance of forests, deforestation has not reduced much, and there are still many more communities and individuals who still destroy lands for personal gains. In this paper there is summarization of forest land, forest cover, changes in forest cover and how deforestation is affecting to landslides and the extinction of species in brief.