Living with Landslides

This film looks at how people live with landslides as part of the Sajag-Nepal project (www.sajag-nepal.org). We highlight the experiences of three communities in Sindhupalchok district in central Nepal, and the steps people have taken to reduce the risks they face. During filming, residents shared their stories, reflecting on past events and expressing concerns about ongoing challenges. The film offers a glimpse into their resilience and local mitigation initiatives they employ in an unstable landscape. First, at Jure – the location of a catastrophic rock avalanche that occurred in 2014 – village elders recount how they used indigenous knowledge to recognize warning signs of a landslide and successfully alerted the community in time, at least 15 household. Second, in Shirishe, locals describe how messages were passed across the hillside using mobile phones which helped them warn friends and family, enabling timely evacuations before a large landslide occurred in 2023. Finally, in Kodari, a settlement near the Nepal-China border that straddles a large unstable hillside, residents speak of their daily struggle to earn a living while coping with the constant fear of future landslides. We also explore how the research from Sajag-Nepal is feeding into understandings of the landslide, and the decisions taken by the communities who live on this hillside.