How a ban on human activities could've saved over 150 lives in Kerala's Wayanad

As the recent landslides in ecologically fragile region of Wayanad in Kerala on Tuesday claimed over 150 lives, stark reminder of the failure of successive governments in notifying the Western Ghats as an eco-sensitive area (ESA), reported ToI.

Once a region is flagged as ESA, the terrain is preserved by banning environmentally hazardous human activities. The entire Western Ghats, spread over six states including Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat, is the second most landslide-prone region of the country after Himalayas. Though Maharashtra and Goa sought a reduction in the extent of ESA within the respective states for allowing development works, the then govt in Karnataka urged the Centre in 2022 to withdraw the draft arguing that it would adversely affect the livelihood of the people in the state.

Despite five draft notifications by the Union environment ministry since March 2014, the states - initially Kerala but later mainly Karnataka - are still not on board for final notification leaving ecologically sensitive areas unprotected.


New draft to be notified soon:
It is learnt that one more draft notification, the sixth one, is expected to be issued in a day or two as the validity of the fifth notification expired a month ago. The draft will give yet another chance to work towards building consensus that has eluded the region for the last 10 years, reported ToI.

Absence of ESA cover to Western Ghats, meanwhile, resulted in continuation of several environmentally-hazardous human activities, including massive deforestation for mining and construction over the years, leading to loosening of soil and affecting hillside stability -- the main reason of landslides during extremely heavy rainfall like the ones that struck Kerala.

IMD data shows that the state received 537% more than normal daily (24 hours) rainfall on July 30. “The landslide was caused by very heavy rainfall over the region during the last two days. Soil conditions were conducive with previous episodes of rains,” Madhavan Rajeevan, former secretary of ministry of earth sciences (MoES), told TOI.

He said though the heavy precipitation was predicted by MoES based on scientific models, the question remained how the prior information could translate into landslide warning. “We need a multi-institutional framework for developing robust landslide prediction systems. We know the science of landslides well. We need to convert it into good services,” said Rajeevan, vice-chancellor of Atria University, Bengaluru.

Experts also believe that controlled deforestation and adoption of sustainable development models could have prevented such disasters in the region impacted by climate change.

(with ToI inputs)