Wayanad Landslide Disaster and Impudent Development Path | Soma Marla

Recent landslides in Kerala is a gruesome reminder of imprudent developmental paradigm followed by our governments. Loss of hundreds of innocent lives in Kerala and Himalayan states are due to floods, landslides can be attributed to climate change from excessive human intervention. Query mining, tunnel construction, road widening, unsustainable buildings (often against mountain slopes) to promote tourism, diversion of forest land to agriculture and coffee plantations are regular in ecologically sensitive areas are prime reasons for these disasters in Western Ghats.
Tragic death of hundreds of people in the landslides over the past few days are very painful in disaster stricken areas of Kerala, Himacahl Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The number of dead and missing seem to be constantly increasing by every passing day. This is not the time for blame game initiated Parliament by Union Home minister, instead central government should to focus on immediate rescue operations, rush more forces, equipment and aid to the affected regions.

Flying Rivers

Carbon dioxide, Methane and other green house gases in the atmosphere trap the heat and don’t let to get out in to the outer sky. The increased infra red radiation rises temperatures on both land and ocean. Present CO2 level in the atmosphere is 421 parts per million (ppm), a significant increase compared to 60 years back which was around 282 ppm (Koji Hoshimoto, 2019). Evaporating vapour from oceans is the prime source of cloud formation for subsequent rainfall during monsoons. But over heated oceans evaporate vigorously and form large “Flying Rivers†. A large flying river generally is 2,500 KM in length, 1500 KM in width with a depth of 2 to 3 KM of vapour contained in it. These "Rivers in the sky" carry some 90% of the total water vapour that moves across the Earth’s mid-latitudes ( 30- 600 ) and is equal to regular flow of the Amazon, the world’s largest river. After the hot summer season these Flying Rivers pass through mid latitude regions of our globe stretching California to Florida to India. Pushed by air currents from Arabian ocean (in case of Kerala) are responsible for unusually heavy rain fall and cloud bursts and resulting heavy floods in Himalayas or Western ghats. Very heavy rainfall on the Himalayans melts glaciers and permoplasts and displaces huge rocks and moulds of mud as it happend in Waynad last week. No surprise with increase of number of very hot days and temperature thresholds crossing 1.5 centigrade. Global studies have shown that atmospheric water vapour has increased by up to 20% since the 1960s. Subsequent, occurrence of Flying Rivers has increased land slides and heay floods. As per official scientific estimates, there have been 80,000 incidents of landslides between 1998 and 2022 in 147 districts of 17 states and two union territories. Of this, maximum incidence of landslides have occurred in Uttarakhand, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Mizoram. While Kerala tops the list, followed by Uttarakhand.

Eco Sensitive Regions

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the Western Ghats regions considered ecologically sensitive. Also these regions are known for rich biodiversity housing hundreds of species of plants, birds and animals. Very famous Silent Valley also is located in this region. Waynad also a part of very fragile ecologically sensitive area that falls in the UNESCO heritage site. Western Ghats region is home to about 50 million people and in the parts belonging Kerala alone at least 5 million people live. Excessive human habitation above the carrying capacity has caused a lot of ecological damage to the region. 

Diversion of Forest land to agriculture and plantations has totally changed the natural land use pattern. Multinational Plantation firms- Tatas, Harrison Malyalam during the last six decades changed the land use pattern by converting lakhs of hectares fo forest land to promote coffee plantations. Added to this during the last three decades there is unprecedented construction of roads, buildings ( often against the mountain slopes violating norms of Green Tribunal) to promote tourism brought havoc to this Eco Sensitive region. Often rock queries operate just 50 Metres to human habitation aginst 100 Metres recommended by Green Tribunal and Gadgil committee recommendations.

Madhav Gadgil’s Report

Way back in 2011 the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), headed by Prof. Madhav Gadgil, in its Report submitted to Union Environment highlighted the need for restraint in construction activities and mark the vulnerable areas under ’Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ). The Panel proposed that quarrying and red category industries should not be allowed in ESZ. Its unfortunate that successive governments ignored the recommendations and followed the developmetal path that ultimately damaged the mountain ecosystem.

Victims are Mostly Poor

Many of those affected in the landslide are working-class local residents, adivasis, migrant workers employed in tea, coffee and cardamom plantations. Considering the destruction of homes, shops, farms, vehicles etc. the Govt must provide all necessary relief, fair compensation and ensure livelihood-based rehabilitation in safer places. The top-down model of ‘development’ being pushed and promoted by most political parties, where the vulnerable always pay the costs, often with their lives, needs to be challenged upfront. We hope proper wisdom will prevail on the political leadership and authorities in future, in the wake of these repeated huge disasters. 

Remedial Measures

We have a state-of-the-art forecasting system in India that warns of incoming cyclones three days in advance. But beyond forecasts, we need early warning systems that factor in local geography the vulnerable eco sensitive locations prone to landslides or cloudbursts that could occur in the forecasted rainfall and that caution the local administration for suitable actions. Recommendations of National Green Tribunal and Madhav Gadgil Committee Government administrators and stake holders should be made legally mandatory to follow to avert future natural disasters.