Environment ministry panel defers nod for Kerala tunnel road proposed near Wayanad landslide site

The ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on infrastructure projects directed the Kerala government to give details on studies done on geology, landslides, and water drainage by expert institutions in a meeting held on April 4, as per minutes of the EAC meeting. It also sought a detailed note on mitigation measures proposed during construction and operation phases to protect against landslides or flooding.

The Kerala government has proposed the Rs 2,134-crore tunnel road to connect two existing roads—the Anakkampoyil-Muthappanpuzha-Marippuzha road and the Meppadi-Kalladi-Chooralmala road with a four-lane tunnel road—to further connect it to state and national highways. It has argued that this will improve connectivity in this region of northern Kerala as well as inter-state connectivity with Karnataka.

The proposed 8.75–km tunnel road was cleared in March by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), as the project size mandates appraisal only at the state level. However, the central-level EAC is appraising the project as the tenure of the members of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, which grants final approvals on the SEAC’s recommendation, has ended, sources said.

The SEAC had recommended environmental clearance for the project with 25 specific conditions, key among them including mapping of landslide vulnerable zones, creation of a corridor for elephant passage, monitoring of the endemic fauna such as the Banasura chilappan bird for impacts it may face owing to the project.

The EAC noted that the tunnel alignment passes through highly vulnerable terrain prone to landslides where “massive destructive landslides occurred during 2019 and 2024”, necessitating precautions during and after the construction to avert vibration-induced landslips.

The expert panel on infrastructure projects is one among 11 sectoral expert panels that scrutinise the environmental impacts of projects before granting mandatory clearances.

The EAC, during its meeting, also noted the geological and biodiversity vulnerabilities that may be aggravated because of the tunnel’s alignment. The area is home to the Banasura chilappan and Nilgiri sholakili, another endangered bird species.

The EAC pointed out that all the impacts anticipated owing to the project activities must be evaluated with adequate scientific inputs and by considering the latest available scientific literature on similar projects. “…the project area falls in an environmentally fragile region and vulnerable to landslides, with a high landslide hazard zone and ESA villages,” the EAC noted.

On July 30, 2024, a devastating landslide in the Chooralmala-Mundakkai areas of Wayanad swept away entire villages, killing 298 people, as per data shared by the Ministry of Home Affairs in Parliament.