Wayanad, how much do we really care?

'Rain violence' sits awkwardly with a country aspiring to earn a 'developed' tag in 23 years' time. Be that as it may, current reality has heavy rainfall and landslide-induced devastation in Kerala's Wayanad as the latest example of what greed, biodiversity loss and climate change can lead to in 2024 India. This is hardly a surprise. In 2022, the Earth sciences ministry informed Parliament that of the 3,782 landslides recorded across India during 2015-22, about 59.2% - 2,239 landslides - occurred in Kerala, the highest in the country. This time, lives could have been saved if the state had heeded IMD's orange alert on July 29 and red alert on July 30. Kerala claims there was no red alert.

Allegations aside, 'Wayanad' is the product of decades of privileging untrammelled greed over environmental well-being. As Madhav Gadgil, chair of Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, set up in 2011 by GoI, stated, the double landslides are proof that the Ghats have been exploited without care, and govs have no interest in protecting nature. The panel had recommended designating Western Ghats as eco-sensitive. It also suggested grading the region into zones based on their ecological sensitivity and fragility, and limiting human activity accordingly. Yet, all six Ghat states pushed back, complaining of an erosion of the federal structure. Unregulated and illegal economic activity flourished, fuelled by an unholy alliance between politics and business. Mining and unrestricted tourism aggravated the situation.

Unless governments and citizens start valuing natural capital, balance economic activities with environmental and ecological well-being, such disasters will recur. The first step now should be to designate the Western Ghats eco-sensitive and rigorously follow guidelines for the regulation and promotion of development activities. That is, if Indians care about the lives and well-being of Indians.