Climate and Vegetation the Unseen Inducing Factors in Landslide Occurrence: A Case Study of Dima Hasao Landslides

Landslides are a frequent geological risk in high-altitude regions. The quantity and severity of landslides are impacted by the changing climate and increased, continuous rainfall. In high-altitude deforestation or afforestation can indirectly affect the likelihood of landslides. Dima Hasao district in Assam, India, was severely impacted between May 11 and May 18, 2022, by a stretch of exceptionally heavy early monsoon rain. This Chapter primary goal is to prepare landslides susceptibility zone map and to examine the landslides that happened in Dima Hasao (May, 2022) in terms of the change in vegetation cover and rainfall pattern. The landslide susceptibility zonation was derived through Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) application in GIS domain. With a CR value of 0.053, the pairwise matrix in the AHP analysis demonstrated a respectable level of consistency, indicating that it was suitable to assign weights to each factor. The most vulnerable landsides are on the higher slope of >50 (22.5%), according to study based on raster analysis. The result signifies the frequency of landslides in exposed areas than in vegetation-covered areas. This chapter highlight fresh avenues for investigation that can aid policymakers in preparing for upcoming calamities and unexpected changes in North East India.