Kerala landslides, a disaster waiting to happen

Wayanad in the north of Kerala with its scenic small towns was submerged in debris as successive landslides swept through the hillsides in the middle of the night as torrential rains hit the region. Rescue teams have recovered nearly 300 bodies and hundreds more  who were injured.

It is suspected that the death toll would increase because as the rains continued through the morning of Tuesday, there are hundreds who are trapped in the debris, shouting and wailing for help, and the rescue teams are unable to reach them. It is feared that hundreds more could be beneath the debris raising the number of the dead.

The state government of Kerala swung into action, and the neighbouring state governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu rushed help to their neighbour, while also announcing financial help. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced Rs2 lakh to the families of those who died. Disaster Response Forces of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as well as contingents of security forces, were pressed into rescue operations. Wayanad happens to be the parliamentary constituency of Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi had won the seat in 2019 and in 2024. His sister Priyanka Gandhi is expected to succeed her brother in Wayanad as Rahul Gandhi retains his seat in Uttar Pradesh, Rae Bareli.

Wayanad is a sensitive ecological zone, nestled in the Western Ghats, a long hill range that runs from south to north parallel to the western coast in the peninsula. Ecologists had warned that the ecology of the area is fragile. The state government has been promoting the towns in Wayanad as tourist destinations.

The ecologists, including the well-known Madhav Gadgil, who heads the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), submitted a report to the national government in 2011, highlighting the vulnerability of the region to natural disasters. But governments have rarely paid attention to the warnings of experts. Now that disaster has hit the region with such violence that everyone is dusting the long-forgotten report of the panel to read about the warnings that were not heeded.

There is unfortunately plenty of politics surrounding the tragedy that struck Wayanad on the night of July 30, the intervening night of July 29-30, Monday night-Tuesday morning. When the issue was mentioned by Chairman of Rajya Sabha, India’s Upper House, Jagdeep Dhankar, who is also the Vice President of the country, many of the opposition members were keen to speak about it and express their shock and anguish. And there were many Members of Parliament from Kerala who were anxious to have their say.

After much cross-talk between the chair and the members in the Opposition, many of them were allowed to have their say after the Leader of the Rajya Sabha, Jay Prakash Nadda, who is also the Minister of Health in Prime Minister Modi’s Cabinet, assured all help to the people affected by the disaster. Then Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju spoke. It is only in the post-lunch period that the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, read out the report stating the condition on the ground.

There will now be a political tussle of how much financial aid Kerala would need after the devastating event. The central government believes that it is giving a financial package keeping in mind that other disasters could hit other states, and they too would need financial aid. The state governments, the Kerala government in this instance, do argue for a larger package because of the long-term consequences of the temporary flooding and death and destruction. And in the mayhem, people and governments tend to forget the reasons behind the disaster, the neglect of the environment.