On July 30, a loud noise shook salesman Ajay Ghosh from Mundakkai in Wayanad district, Kerala. For a while, he couldn’t understand what that loud noise was. After that, with heavy rain, a large mudslide began to flow. In the landslides that occurred in Mundakkai and Chooralmala in Wayanad district and Nilambur forest area in Malappuram district, as of now, at least 277 people have died, while 200 people are missing.
Two landslides between 2 PM and 4 PM were so intense that their impact was felt as far as the Nilambur forest in Malappuram district, located 90 kilometres away. Rescuers have recovered 30 bodies from this area.
The Madhav Gadgil Report has declared all these areas ecologically Sensitive Zoneses (ESZ). This report concerns the environment of the Western Ghats and provides information about highly sensitive, moderately sensitive, and least sensitive areas. All political parties and state governments of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu have consistently opposed this report. Recently, the Kerala government has approved some activities besides plantations in this region.
Table of Contents
The Blame Game
On Wednesday, Home Minister Amit Shah claimed in the Rajya Sabha that the Kerala government was alerted in advance on July 23. However, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the information from the central government had been received several hours after the disaster had struck Wayanad.
Opposition party MPs alleged that if a better ‘system’ existed, people’s lives could have been saved. Meanwhile, due to the landslide in Wayanad, hundreds of people have been forced to take refuge in relief camps. These relief camps have been set up around the tea plantations in Churalmala and the cardamom plantation in Mundakkai.
It’s Not the First Time
Landslides in this hilly area of Wayanad district are not a new phenomenon. The Gadgil Report also provided information regarding this issue. In 2019, 17 people died about 10 kilometres from the Churalmala-Mundakkai area. A Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) report attributed the landslides to mining in the rocks.
In 2018 and 2019, information about landslides occurring around 51 times was reported. At that time, the Puthumala-Nilambur region received 34 centimetres of rainfall. There has been 60-70 per cent more rainfall across the region. All weather monitoring stations, including farmer organisations, reported 34 cm of rain. Whereas in 2019, this rate was 34 cm in just one day. Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) showed through maps that mining was 4.65 kilometres from Churalmala and 5.9 kilometres from Mundakkai.
The State Suffers with Extreme Weather Events
The state has seen more extreme weather events over the past decade, like Cyclone Ockhi in 2017 and major floods in 2018 and 2019. A report called ‘A Review on the Extreme Rainfall Studies in India’ says that extreme monsoon rains in India have become more frequent and intense over the past 50 years, despite yearly differences. It predicts that these extreme rainfall events will keep increasing in the coming decades. Climate scientists say this trend is due to human-caused climate change, which has led to more extreme rainfall events during monsoons, thunderstorms, and sudden heavy rains.
The Climate Change is Evident at Wayanad
A new law in Kerala introduced in recent years allows using a portion of plantation land for other activities. As a result, plantation owners have turned their attention to the tourism sector and started constructing large buildings there, which required levelling the land. Wayanad has more than 20 tourist spots, attracting 25,000 foreign and 100,000 domestic tourists annually.
To understand the reasons behind the landslide in Kerala, we must follow the Gadgil Report, which suggests that this sensitive land should be managed differently. Unfortunately, the entire political class opposes this. The problem in Kerala is even more severe because the land here is very fragile. There are deep ravines. Rain is turning into heavy downpours, and the land has become so delicate that it cannot withstand heavy rain. The way out is to ensure that our ecosystem is truly healthy. If it is, it can handle any kind of climate change.
However, in Wayanad, the rescue efforts have gained momentum as more rescue teams arrived in the affected area and put their best efforts into finding and rescuing affected people. On the other hand, As Parliament debated the Wayanad disaster on July 31, Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed the Lok Sabha that he would introduce a Bill on disaster management during the current session.
