Wayanad -- Mudslide along a slippery moral slope

Twin betrayals underlie the tragedy in Wayanad: by the Church of their commitment to spiritual pursuit in favour of the rich, and by the Communists of their foremost constituency, the poor

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/wayanad-mudslide-along-a-slippery-moral-slope-12786774.html

Wayanad -- Mudslide along a slippery moral slope

T K Arun

Three narratives are at play in Kerala's landslide fiasco. One is the impressive relief work, flow of funds into the chief minister's relief fund, even from a national leader the Congress, much to the discomfiture of the party’s state leadership. Malayalis, whether they live in Kerala or outside the state, open their hearts and wallets, when disaster strikes.

Another is the blame game. Were central agencies remiss, the Meteorological Department, in the case of short-term extreme weather warning, and the Geological Survey of India, which should be mapping landslide vulnerability and advocating preventive measures? Did the state government machinery fail to kick in, to proactively save people? Was somebody manning the warning system colour blind, and failed to distinguish between an orange alert and a red alert? Or is it all the result of climate change?

Then, there is the failure to respect the Madhav Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports on the need to keep off the fragile parts of the Western Ghats. The Kasturirangan report diluted the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil report, in a bid to arrive at political consensus, at least on some basic measures.

All three are relevant But, this being Kerala, there is a tendency to elide, with political consensus, the basic factor behind the failure to respect expert advice on protecting fragile ecosystems: greed. Construction and quarrying on the hillside prepare the ground for landslides, massive rains trigger the actual disaster, and the less well-off get buried under the mud, while the well-off collect their insurance cheques. Climate change aggravates the problem.

A 2023 paper by Saibal Ghosh, deputy director of the Geological Survey of India S-IV_GeologicalDisasters.pdf (nrsc.gov.in) offers some ready insight into landslides. Between 1997 and 2008, 4.8 million people were affected worldwide by landslides. India registered 10,900 deaths from landslides (18% of the global landslide casualties) between 2004 and 2016. Out of the total global landslides triggered by rainfall, 16% are from India. Of these, 77% occurred during the monsoon. Further, the number of landslides that are triggered by human activity is climbing in India. About 28% landslides has a relation to construction activity.

It is estimated that 430,000 sq km is landslide-prone in India, about 12.6% of the Indian landmass. Of this, Kerala’s share is 19,301 sq km, or 4.5%. But Kerala accounted for 61% of the 3,656 landslides that occurred in India over 2015-20. Why does Kerala have so many landslides, 116 per 1,000 vulnerable sq km, while the national average is 8 per 1,000 vulnerable sq km?

The Western Ghats run along India’s Arabian Sea coastline, from Gujarat to Kerala. These mountains are not very tall, but are older than the Himalayas. In Kerala, the slopes are steep, rivulets, streams and rivers originating in the Ghats reaching the plains in a tearing hurry, and flowing relatively short stretches before reaching the sea or emptying themselves into Kerala’s backwaters. Of Kerala’s 44 rivers, just three flow to the east, across Kerala’s state boundaries, to meander through Karnataka or Tamil Nadu. The rest descend West, and rush along to the Arabian Sea. It is conceivable that erratic and heavy rains accelerate the flow and erode the slopes of the hills.

But more relevant is indiscriminate settlement of the Ghats for plantations, farmland, quarries, resorts and other construction. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel headed by Madhav Gadgil had recommended, in 2011, declaring 64% of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, where construction should be barred. This was deemed anti-development by politicians and businessmen across the states along which the Ghats sprawl. The UPA government set up a panel under Planning Commission member Kasturirangan to study the Gadgil panel report. It brought down the sensitive area estimate to 37%. This was attacked by environmentalists, as well as by businesses and politicians.

In Kerala, the Church has been among the most vocal campaigners against curbing economic activity on the Ghats on environmental grounds. Pioneering farmers from Southern Kerala had migrated north to the jungles of Wayanad and Kannur, braving malaria and wild predators to settle the land, farm, grow assorted cash crops. These were mostly Christians, and the Church used its political clout to oppose any curtailment of its flock’s economic enterprise.

Kerala’s coalition politics is ideal for articulating such pressure. The state’s two fronts, the Communist-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front, are vulnerable to any erosion of support. They would much rather sacrifice the environment than lose political support of even a small section of voters.

When disaster strikes, whether natural or manmade, the poor suffer far more than the well-off. When politicians choose to keep vested interests happy and sacrifice the integrity of the fragile mountains, they endanger lives, particularly of the poor.

Wayanad today is the victim of twin betrayals: by the Church privileging material wealth over its core spiritual calling, and by the Communists, of its core constituency, the poor, to protect property built where it ought not to be. The slippery slope along which masses of unstoppable mud and sodden, uprooted earth has slid down to swallow probably 500 lives in Wayanad has essentially been that of morality.