Landslide’s Recovery and Restoration: A Way to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15

At the global scale, landslides are considered as one of the key causes for the degradation of landscapes in mountain areas. Land degradation involves the deterioration of soil in reference to physicochemical and biological characteristics of soil, loss in soil fertility, and erosion of soil by wind/water. In India, particularly in the Himalayan Region, landslides are held responsible for such land degradation. Landslides cause excessive damage to soil and vegetation, by removing the upper fertile layer of soil and uprooting all existing vegetation. In the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR), such landslides occur very frequently, particularly in monsoon season, and cause enormous loss of biodiversity and significantly alter the characteristics of the soil. Therefore, landslide areas should be targeted for protection, recovery, and restoration methods to achieve land degradation neutrality (Target 15.3) under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 (Life on land). Also, restoration of degraded lands caused by landslides will help our country, either directly or indirectly, achieve the following targets: a greater expansion of area under forest cover to achieve 33% of the total geographical area under forest cover which at present is 21.71% of the total geographical area and achieving Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) by creating carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of CO2 through forests by 2030 under “Paris Agreement” in 2015 (COP 21). Furthermore, it entails fulfilling the goals of the Bonn Challenge, 2015, which aims to restore 13 million hectares of deteriorated land by 2020 and an additional 8 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. Therefore, to achieve these targets, proper assessment of the loss of natural resources due to landslides and appropriate interventions should come into motion to pace up the course of recovery and ecological restoration of deteriorated lands especially in the landscapes of the Himalayan Region.