Better not to ignore nature's warning again

Two years after the Mundakkai disaster, nature unleashed its fury yet again in Kerala’s green paradise, Wayanad.

Three migrant workers lost their lives in a landslide caused by a section of the Meenakshi mountain range that was being excavated for the Anakkampoyil - Kalladi - Meppadi Tunnel. Five are missing. 18 people, including locals, went under the debris. Nine of them have been admitted to the hospital with injuries. The search is ongoing at the scene of the disaster.

The preliminary investigation revealed that the Kalladi disaster was a man-made one due to ignoring warnings. The exact causes of the accident can only be determined through a scientific investigation conducted by teams of experts. Government sources point out that the contractor, Dilip Buildcon Limited, was not prepared to remove the soil piled up at the construction site on time despite receiving warnings from the authorities, which increased the scope of the disaster.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the Collector and the Disaster Management Authority had issued orders to remove the soil, and even a meeting was chaired by the Public Works Minister, but they were not followed. If such instructions given by the government were not followed immediately, the district authorities should have visited the site and stopped the company's construction. This is not the first incident of landslides at such construction sites. Such landslides have also occurred at many places during the construction of the National Highway due to improper adherence to safety standards. In this context, more careful, urgent and strict interventions should have been made by the Disaster Management Authority.

Small and large landslides are common in locations where tunnels are built. This has not stopped tunnel construction across the world. Even larger tunnels have been built in the Himalayan terrains, where landslides are an everyday occurrence. To avoid accidents, expert monitoring is required 24 hours a day. The pain of Kalladi should be a lesson for the authorities of Public Works and the Disaster Management Authority.

Although there are various reasons for landslides, the main cause is the cutting of trees that hold up the mountain. The fact that even in this era, where laws are very strict, tree cutting remains frequent, and it shows how influential the mafias involved are. Similarly, there exists a practice that if awarded a contract without conducting a proper geological study and without following the warnings and standards, the company will do things as they wish, violating all rules.

Wayanad sits on an extremely fragile topography. It is also the place with the largest number of granite quarries.

Due to climate change, not only in Kerala, but also in the Konkan region as a whole, the pattern of rainfall is occurring in various degrees of intensity. The floods that submerged Mumbai in the past few days are the result of extremely intense rainfall in a short period of time. In the past four days, the state received more rainfall than it received in the last year. Therefore, the safety methods based on the old patterns of rainfall need to be completely changed. New construction methods and disaster management methods that assess the intensity of rainfall in the context of climate change need to be adopted.

Those living on the slopes of mountains and other places are most at risk during the monsoon season. If heavy rains continue, local bodies should formulate special plans to evacuate those living in hilly areas and prepare temporary accommodation. Similarly, permanent accommodation of workers in dangerous construction sites should not be allowed under any circumstances. The state labour department should take strong interventions in this regard.

The Mundakkai disaster in Wayanad was also a warning that Kerala's development perspectives should be more environmentally friendly. A densely populated and fertile area was turned into a graveyard in an instant. What we need to adopt now is a responsible construction culture and environmental protection.

Conservation of nature in the hilly areas is rather a political topic in Kerala. Long before the 2018 floods and the subsequent Wayanad disaster, environmentalists like Dr Madhav Gadgil had warned that Kerala would have to face man-made natural disasters. The political leadership till recently cared less about Gadgil’s sane warnings but softened their stances after the recurring natural calamities.

In the context of the current disaster, the resumption of tunnel construction should be done after a comprehensive review. Similarly, there is no doubt that there was a lapse in supervision at the construction site. The contract company should also be prepared to take appropriate action against the officials responsible for this.

Such disasters are nature's warnings. It is no longer possible for Kerala to ignore it.