Disaster Strikes Wayanad due to Unplanned Development and Unusual Rainfall

The Kerala landslide highlights the significance of safeguarding human lives in the Western Ghats area amidst the adversities of climate change.

Kerala is still healing from the astonishment and wreckage of its most severe landslide in its history. The approximate count of fatalities is 333 and nearly 281 individuals are unaccounted for.

Wayanad district, positioned in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats and celebrated for its misty mountains and verdant landscapes favored by tourists, is wrestling with the intensity of a calamity that, as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed, has “obliterated an entire locality“.

The Chooralmala-Mundakkai region in Meppadi Panchayat, which encountered the most damage, falls under the Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1 (ESZ1) recognized by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel directed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil in 2011.

The Gadgil report had cautioned against environmentally detrimental actions in the region owing to its distinct topography and dense forest cover.

Chooralmala and Mundakkai are among the secluded forest-adjacent areas in Wayanad, inhabited by tea plantation laborers and farmers who also manage small enterprises.

A few residences still exist in Chooralmala, but the landslide spared no human construction in Mundakkai. A couple of individuals survived purely by chance.

This is not the initial instance disaster has impacted the region. In 2019, a significant landslide in Puthumala, just a few kilometers away, resulted in 17 casualties, property impairment, and rendered the land largely infertile.

The devastation of land and property this time has devastated the local economy.

Remarkably heavy rainfall, assessed to be about 1830mm over the last 30 days, preceded the calamity.

Climate experts have recognized a connection between the Wayanad landslides and the warming up of the Arabian Sea, which leads to the formation of deep cloud systems.

This occurrence is a result of global warming. The mountain ranges of the Western Ghats also obstruct moisture-laden airflow, elevating the probability of localized extreme rainfall occurrences in areas like Wayanad.

The expense of development

Development aspirations were high in the region due to its closeness to Kalladi, the entrance to the four-lane tunnel road project connecting Bengaluru with Kozhikode.

The tunnel, which is anticipated to become the third-longest in India and is being established by the Konkan Rail Corporation Limited, has encountered criticism from environmental groups for the hazards it poses to both wildlife and the escalated incidence of floods and landslides.

Tourism was thriving in the Chooralmala-Mundakkai regions following the “discovery” of “exotic” new sites and the increasing fame of old favorites such as Soochipara Waterfalls.

Baby, a local farmer, mentioned a significant surge in the number of resorts and homestays over the past few years, many of which are situated in scenic but landslide-prone hilly regions.

This trend is akin to that of numerous new concrete residences constructed over the last decade, mainly financed by remittances from the Gulf countries.

The cumulative impact of unplanned development, deforestation, land use alterations, and intense rainfall induced by global warming over a brief period is believed to be the primary cause of the recurring landslides.

Following the most recent landslide, over 150 tourists were stranded in multiple resorts as debris obstructed all the roads connecting them.

Thousands of landslide survivors have been housed in schools around the neighboring town of Meppadi. A school instructor volunteering in a relief camp commented that there was no scarcity of food or garments as aid from other districts and adjacent states was generously flowing in.

Nevertheless, there was continual shouting and complete chaos over recognizing victims.

The individuals in the relief camps have to search for their loved ones among the unidentified and distorted corpses or body parts recovered from deep within the mud or from the Chaliyar river, kilometers away from the Chooralmala-Mundakkai region.

Psychological repercussions of climate catastrophes

The inhabitants of Wayanad are mainly religious, and conducting death rituals according to their respective beliefs is a fundamental facet of social life.

The places of worship for the three primary religions — Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam — were demolished during landslides.

A substantial loss of human life in a confined area and the incapacity to perform death rituals are not part of the personal experiences and communal remembrance of Keralites.

Studies indicate that natural disasters have a notable psychological impact on survivors. It is encouraging that this realization was prompt at the governmental level in Kerala following the catastrophe.

“More than the physical wounds, the mental anguish caused by the abrupt loss of their loved ones affected the survivors the most,” stated State Minister VN Vasavan, who was part of a high-level team that visited the hospitals with Wayanad residents who survived the calamity with injuries.

“Many of them were in a state of utter despair following the loss of those close to them, who were resting in the adjacent room. Once the medical treatment is completed, they need to be transferred for psychological counseling.”

However, the mental health infrastructure is inadequate to offer prolonged psychological assistance, with even the leading mental health centers in Kerala lacking the necessary facilities mandated by the Mental Healthcare Act.

Despite the presence of a government-run program to assign a trained psychologist in every school, a scarcity of funds has impeded its effective operation.

The novel climate migrants

It is becoming increasingly prevalent for high-risk, landslide-prone regions in the Western Ghats to endure extreme rainfall in a brief duration. For example, Mundakkai recorded an excessively high 572mm of rain in just 48 hours before the calamity.

The Wayanad calamity has drastically raised the count of individuals in Kerala who have been compelled to evacuate their residences due to climate change, commonly denoted as climate migrants.

A new classification of “temporary” climate migrants is emerging, as it has become usual for individuals residing in landslide-prone areas of the Western Ghats to relocate to their relatives’ dwellings, oftentimes involuntarily, during periods of extreme rainfall.

The majority of individuals residing in relief camps in Meppadi have no clue about where to go or what to do in the future. They only understand that they need to vacate the schools promptly so their children can resume their studies.

Following the Puthumala and Kavalappara landslides in 2019, despite considerable delays, the Kerala government initiated special initiatives to relocate and rehabilitate the survivors with assistance from private entities.

Nevertheless, if a colossal disaster like the one in Wayanad were to unleash thousands of climate migrants, the Kerala government, which is already grappling financially, would be incapable of accommodating them all.

Finding suitable land in nearby localities is another substantial challenge. In most scenarios, the survivors, who were reliant on the local economy and resided in close-knit neighborhoods or kinship communities before the calamity, are unwilling to relocate to distant areas.

The Chooralmala-Mundakkai landslide is a defining moment for conserving the Western Ghats, which span six states in India, as it highlights the significance of preserving human lives in the region amidst the challenges of climate change.

How Kerala, internationally renowned for its development benchmarks and widely acknowledged as a ‘model state‘, tackles climate calamities in the forthcoming years will be pivotal for the entire nation.

Sajan Thomas is a novelist and columnist who instructs Political Science at St. John’s College, Anchal, affiliated with the University of Kerala. He holds a doctoral degree from the University of Bergen, Norway, and his other achievements include a fellowship from Harvard University and being a visiting scholar at NIAS, Copenhagen.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info.