For Environment, Democracy and Livelihoods
The Production of Landslides Risks and Local Responses: A Case Study of Bhoje Landslide, Lamjung, Nepal.
Bhoje village, located in Bhoje VDC in Lamjung district is a small Gurung village of about 60 households with its stone built houses closely clustered on the ridge of a hill. In July 2013 the slope beneath the southern edge of the village experienced a major landslip bringing the houses on the edge of the settlement to within 50 meters of an advancing landslide cliff edge. The landslide is not new, having, as will be seen at least a 25 year history. In 2011 there was also a major landslip which cracked the walls of the primary school at the top of the slope; the 2013 landslide destroyed half the school which had been relocated to a new building the previous year. No reports were made by the villagers that a particularly heavy storm had been experienced before or during the 2013 landslide. It would appear that the slope is now inherently structurally unstable and has acquired a life of its own, needing little to trigger further activity. The landslide that is about half a kilometre wide and stretches for about half a kilometre up the hillsideis easily seen from the other side of the valley about half a mile away: a visible white scar within a landscape of forest and terraced fields. It has destroyed about 200-300 ropani (10-15 ha.) of paddy land but with other agricultural land scattered across a number of different slopes around the village, the loss of the land does not appear to have triggered significant food insecurity for the affected households….
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