According to a study by Durham University in the UK,
landslides kill up to ten times as many people as we thought. Its authors said the worldwide death toll
from 2004 to 2010 was 32,300, compared with earlier estimates of between 3,000
and 7,000.
The main author, David Petley, said most data
tended to record only landslides in which ten or more people are killed, when
many victims perish in much smaller events.
The study identified the most vulnerable regions
as being countries along the Himalayan Arc - India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and
Bangladesh - plus China, and Central and South America. It suggested that better management of
forests and discouraging people from living in vulnerable areas were the best
way of reducing the danger.
Perhaps the world’s deadliest landslide was
the one that hit coastal areas of Venezuela after torrential rain in the
last few days of the twentieth century.
Estimates of the number killed range as high as 30,000. For the full story see A Disastrous History of the World.
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