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The problem of landslides in Kerala
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Reports and recommendations are aplenty, but implementation is tardy
An aerial view of the tea plantations on August 1, 2024 after landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district. Photo: Humane Society International, India viua AFP
Nearly a fortnight after two landslides gouged out the face of the Vellarimala hill in Wayanad’s Meppadi panchayat, killing more than 230 people in the foothills, the search continues for the missing, estimated to be more than 130 people.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions for Kerala, which has been battered by extreme weather events ever since the great flood of 2018. That year, 341 major landslides were reported in the State. Landslides have become a major hazard every monsoon since then, with Wayanad, Idukki, Malappuram, Kasaragod, and Kozhikode districts marked as, and proving to be, highly susceptible to deadly landslides. About 75 people died in overnight landslides at Kavalappara in Malappuram and Puthumala in Wayanad, situated six kilometres apart across the hills, in 2019. Puthumala is barely a few kilometres down the hill from the Chooralmala and Mundakkai wards of Meppadi panchayat, which bore the brunt of the landslides on July 30 this year.
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As in 2019, the landslides this year were also triggered by extremely heavy rainfall: 527 mm of rain in 48 hours. It is evident now that there was inadequate early warning. But the role of anthropogenic factors in exacerbating the disaster cannot be discounted.
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The Kerala government embarked on a mission to rebuild the State in the wake of the 2018 flood. The post-disaster needs assessment report envisioned a climate-resilient Kerala, which was to be built by managing integrated water resources, following an eco sensitive and risk-informed land use and settlement approach, promoting community-based disaster management, and integrating disaster risk reduction plans across sectors with technology and innovation. However, implementation has been tardy.
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The ‘room for river’ project for flood management in the plains has not made any headway. Affirmative action to ensure eco sensitive land use remains a chimera, with the government biding time and a vast majority of the people opposed to the idea of resettlement due to a deep distrust of the system. Unregulated constructions continue to be a menace on the fragile hills in Wayanad and Idukki, with an eye on revenue from tourism. The India Meteorological Department and the Geological Survey of India have delayed upscaling their technical capabilities to give accurate, actionable, and timely early warnings. A case in point is the endless wait for the installation of a Doppler weather radar in Kozhikode to bring north Kerala, including Wayanad, under coverage. Such a radar can give ‘people-friendly’ information such as probable rainfall intensity, wind shear, and the probability of extreme weather such as a cloudburst. But this appears to be a tall order as Wayanad does not even have an adequate number of rain gauges.
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But the government has brought local bodies on board the disaster risk reduction matrix. As many as 260 local bodies were handheld by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration in putting together panchayat-level disaster management plans after some laborious fieldwork. Each report contains the whole gamut of information pertaining to that panchayat. For instance, Meppadi, ravaged by the landslides in July, has published a report. To what extent this has been useful in fighting the disaster needs to be examined.
Nevertheless, the plan is sweeping in its coverage of the geomorphological features of the land, the people, the interventions on land, crops, safe routes, etc. It identifies the vulnerable spots and people, such as the differently abled, the bedridden, children, the aged, migrant workers, and those under palliative care. There are long lists of people to sound warnings and be the first responders in the event of a disaster. Officials say these panchayats have been given downscaled climate projection data and maps. For panchayat officials to make sense of the downscaled climate project data and maps, there is a need to ground truth the same.
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While the disaster management plan should be frequently updated, experts point to the need to integrate these individual plans while preparing district disaster management plans. There is now a fairly sound understanding of which areas are prone to disasters. While the government should urge the Central agencies to upgrade their systems in order to be able to provide accurate and timely weather alerts, it should also pay attention to community-driven climate monitoring systems.
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