“In some places the whole hill comes out. When we see these places, you would never know there was a settlement there before,” says Jampa Tsering Lama, who is a Nepalese emergency coordinator for humanitarian aid organisation People in Need (PIN). The charity has helped deliver aid to people who have been hit by some of the 300 or so landslides that struck the country in 2020 alone.

“When the landslide is minor, people can recover their livelihood,” Lama explains, “but if the impact is high, their livelihood and property are wrecked.” This displaces people and means “communities are not able to return to their place of origin”.

When landslides strike, the effects can be devastating. In 2021 there were several major slope collapses around the world that have caused extensive damage. On 7 February, a landslide in Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas killed at least 70 people. Just days later a major landslide in Ecuador displaced over 500 people (happily...