The mounting toll in Wayanad is a grim reminder of the dangers of giving short shrift to Kerala’s ecological frailties. Warnings were issued more than a decade ago by two expert committees that mapped the eco-sensitivity of the Western Ghats in great detail. In 2011, a panel chaired by the eminent ecologist Madhav Gadgil underlined the need to regulate developmental activities in the entire 1,60,000 sq km stretch of the Ghats. The Gadgil committee’s recommendations were met with resistance by all states and parties across the political spectrum in the biodiverse region, especially in Kerala and Karnataka. Two years later, a High Level Working Group (HLWG) headed by scientist K Kasturirangan sought to strike a new balance between environment and development. It recommended that 37 per cent of the Western Ghats be demarcated as an ecologically sensitive area (ESA) and called for a complete ban on mining and quarrying in these protected zones. The HLWG report, whose suggestions too remain on paper, had included parts of Wayanad where landslides struck on Tuesday. The Gadgil committee, likewise, demarcated the area reeling under the tragedy as “highly sensitive”.
About half of Kerala comprises hills and mountainous regions with slopes greater than 20 degrees. The construction boom of recent decades has stripped the once lush hills of the state of their forests. A 2022 study in the International Journal of Environment and Public Health revealed that Wayanad had lost 60 per cent of its forests between 1950 and 2018. The erosion of the green cover has made Kerala susceptible to landslides. In July 2022, the Ministry of Earth Sciences informed the Lok Sabha that Kerala witnessed the highest number of major landslides in the country since 2015 — nearly 60 per cent of landslides in this seven-year period were reported from the state. There were major landslides during the floods of 2018, including in Wayanad. ISRO’s Landslide Atlas, released last year, lists the district among the top 15 regions prone to such disasters.
