What is a safe place to live in a district that is highly prone to landslides? Overnight, schools, houses, towns, where people lived a normal life, vanished in a debris flow that travelled up to 6km from the initiation point in Kerala's Wayanad district. These were places considered safe to live at least by the residents, but not any more. As Kerala grapples with the most cataclysmic landslides in its history, a simple question emerges – where do people live from now on.
Since 2018, there has been a pattern to landslides that claimed human lives. Sporadic high-intensity showers caused devastating debris flows. Extreme rainfall triggered 4,728 major and minor landslides in Kerala in 2018. The monsoon of 2019 saw two fatal landslides -- one at Puthumala killing 17 people and another at Kavalappara claiming 59 lives. Yet another tragic one followed the next year of monsoon -- Pettimudi, which killed 70 people. It didn't end there, there were major landslides at Kokkayar in Idukki, Plappally and Kavali near Koottickal in Kottayam in 2021.
A study titled 'Tale of three landslides' notes that all these devastating landslides pointed to the possibility that many parts of the Western Ghats are susceptible to landslides. A combination of factors like change of land use, natural vegetation and the final trigger of intense rainfall caused the disasters.
Living with hazards
The Madhav Gadgil committee report had a strong word of caution against human intervention in ecologically sensitive areas. Meppadi panchayat in Vythiri taluk of Wayanad district figured among the 18 Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZs) listed in the report. Puthumala and Chooralmala, where landslides have been hit, come under this panchayat. The district disaster management plan of Wayanad also identifies these places as high risk areas for landslide, requiring special attention.
Experts who have studied the landslide have opined that it is not easy to implement stringent measures such as habitation- and construction-free zones in these areas. Environmentalists stress the need for immediate relocation.
''Landslides in Mundakkai and Chooralmala should be regarded as natural disasters rather than man-made ones. The region experienced an exceptional amount of rainfall, which saturated the soil and increased the likelihood of landslides. However, loss of life and property damage could have been largely prevented. These areas are ecologically sensitive, making habitation inherently risky. The government needs to prioritise relocating residents from these high-risk zones to ensure their safety,'' said environmentalist R Sridhar.
"People have nowhere else to go, and alternatives need to be provided. There should be a long-term plan and process for the rehabilitation of those living in these high-risk zones, which should be prioritised. Therefore, what happened in Wayanad is both a natural disaster and a man-made one, as necessary precautions were not taken," he stated.
In 2018, post the deluge, the state government constituted an expert advisory committee to study the construction of houses in high hazard areas, after getting the reports of the Geological Survey of India.
Based on the recommendations of the committee, the government ordered that the district-wise survey report prepared by the Geological Survey of India listing vulnerable houses shall be communicated to the district collectors by the Member Secretary, State Disaster Management Authority. The collectors were directed to ensure that damaged houses included in the list were not reconstructed at the same site. Residents in houses that may not have suffered damage but were included in the list had to be relocated before the next monsoon season. In high, medium and low hazard zones, as depicted in the landslide-prone area map of National Centre of Earth Science Studies (NCESS) newly-constructed houses shall maintain at least a distance of 15 metres from small streams in slopes greater than 15 degrees.
There is no action taken report available in the public domain after this order was issued.
Legislative assembly records show that steps were taken to relocate susceptible families after 2018 disaster, 411 families were relocated after 2019 landslides and government issued orders announcing an aid of Rs 10 lakh for those who lost land and house in 2021 natural disaster. Separate orders for financial aid for purchase of land were issued for survivors of Kavalappara,Pettimudi and Puthumala landslides.
In all these instances, relocation happened after the incident occurred, something that needs to be changed according to environmental activists.
N Badusha, president of Wayanad Environment Protection Committee, cites an example. ''A landslide occurred in 2020, but the timely intervention of the then Wayanad district collector Keshvendra Kumar, who relocated people from the area, helped mitigate its impact. Badusha emphasized the urgent need for temporary rehabilitation in these regions and stressed the importance of communicating safety precautions to the residents.
Sridhar also said that rehabilitation efforts should begin immediately, prioritising high-risk areas. He noted that the Madhav Gadgil Committee divided the Western Ghats into different zones with broad conservation guidelines. The responsibility is not solely on one party, as people are often hesitant about changes. ''Both localised and broad solutions are needed. Gadgil recommended that panchayats review these guidelines to identify problem areas and called for a complete ban on environmentally destructive activities, like mining and quarrying, in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 (ESZ1). The state should have reviewed the Gadgil report and informed the Central government about the associated costs, but instead, the state government disregarded the report entirely,'' he said.
Where do we live?
Some of the residents of Mundakkai, who survived the disaster, said they built homes taking loans on a land which was close to their source of livelihood. Many of these landslide-prone areas are likely the only places they can afford as a significant number of residents are farmers. Without proper and structured rehabilitation measures, they have nowhere else to go.
Permanent residence in hazardous areas cannot be allowed any more, environmentalists said. ''They may continue their agricultural activities but should not reside in these hazardous locations permanently," Sridhar said. He suggested that in Wayanad, seasonal living arrangements could be established where residents move out during the monsoon season, requiring changes in agricultural practices to adapt to these movements.
Badusha said that restoring the devastated land will take time, and for Wayanad to sustain itself, changes in environmental policies are necessary.
Jayakumar C, director of environmental NGO Thanal, underlined that immediate changes are needed not only in environmental policies but also in government regulations. "For example, the rule requiring the collector to act solely based on IMD updates should be revised. The situation in Wayanad highlights both environmental and human factors. People must adapt to the changing conditions of the Western Ghats, or else these changes would result in serious repercussions for us," he said.
