Raju G. Mendez
The Landslide! Unheard of, before! Storm, flood, the roaring noises of rolling huge flints of rock wrestling between. In the accompaniment of incessant rage of rains in the backdrop of darkness.! Streaks of lines in gray clouds formed huge thunderheads portending thunderstorms. Ferocious grudges of thunderbolts deafened the ears of those who struggled to escape the sudden attack
They held their breaths in panic and panted with terror in bewilderment. Of witnessing their motherland dance in rage outrageously making it difficult. Not even able to link these scenes to their wildest dreams!
Had swept over the forest! Had cleared with a mysterious rapidity! With the intermittent attack, it outpoured! Made the journey of escape helping each other get by, glided up to the zones of safety resorts, an arduous effort!
They, assuming that something untowardly about to happen, and rescuing themselves was not easy, had to combine their powers with the neighborhoods, the mothers, fathers who grasped their children tightly and the nearest ones safely, all immersed in conflict of thoughts between reluctance to pull away from their comfortable zones of years, in their retrospection Or saving their life aloof in safety, in introspection;
A war waged between the pleasures and pains and an unavoidable challenge, a bolt from above.
Their playground had disappeared, but the huge mass of debris and dead bodies remained still, resembling a graveyard.
A loud noise! That is what they know, shook awoke the entire area and people at their homes in slumber, in Wayanad district’s Mundakkai village, part of the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats – a mountain range that runs along the western coast of India – the district is not new to landslides, in the early hours of Tuesday. The nature of the soil in Wayanad was the perfect foil to the disaster.
At first, the residents of Wayanad district’s Mundakkai village did not quite understand what led to the sound.
But the reason is..! As rainfall happens, water infiltrates the soil pores and the pore pressure builds, causing soil layers to slide. At Mundakkai, an excessively large quantity of earth got saturated, the pressure was so high that it assumed a momentum and width large enough to swallow up whatever that came on the way. The landslide just got longer, wider, and farther in Wayanad leading to unprecedented damage.
Baffled literally! at the mysterious noise, they looked out and saw an enormous amount of mud flowing down from a hill above, they knew what was coming.
As many as 300 people have been killed and 192 people are still missing in the massive landslides that hit Mundakkai and the neighboring Chooralmala area that night.
Wayanad landslide also hit the only Higher secondary school at Mundakkai where the students, parents, and teachers inculcated a unique kind of bond among themselves, got partially demolished and several lives were trapped. The school now gives shelter to thousands, functioning as a relief camp, say teachers.
The worst disaster, the state has ever seen since floods in 2018, has left behind a trail of destruction in its wake. An abnormally huge mass of debris barrelled downwards crushing houses, people, and a town, propelled by a high-intensity rainfall.
The aftermaths depicted uprooted trees, flattened houses, and broken bridges submerged in muddied waters, domestic animals searching for their bread-giving masters, and stranded people fumbling for their near ones on a tangent. A bridge connecting Mundakkai with Chooralmala was washed away. Those declared dead and found missing comprised people including children of the region and migrant laborers from other states of India as well.
A few families who somehow survived are bereft of their next-door neighbors who died adjacent to their house, not even a mile away.
The intensity of the landslide was so high that it split the Iruvanipuzha River, which flows through the area, part its way into two tributaries.
Tuesday onwards, authorities have been up in arms launching a massive rescue operation in the area, to look for possible survivors. Though their efforts have been impeded by bad weather conditions, a bailey bridge was erected on a war footing by them to facilitate rescue operations.
Currently, thousands of people are sheltering in government-run relief camps, deprived of everything hard-earned in a lifetime, gaping at the mysterious days to come.
A hilly region known for its rugged terrain and stunning vistas, Wayanad is a popular tourist destination that attracts more than 100,000 visitors every year. The district is mainly inhabited by indigenous tribes and is dotted with picturesque tea and cardamom estates.
It was foretold! many moons ago in 2011, a report submitted by a panel of experts, led by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, had classified the entire Wayanad region as “fragile, medium fragile and less fragile area. The report also recommended a ban on all “environmentally-hazardous” human activities along the Western Ghats, including in Wayanad.
However, the exhortation has since been singlemindedly opposed by all political parties and the government of Kerala, who argued that it would stall development in the area, along with the neighboring state of Karnataka, which argued that it would impact the livelihoods of local people.
The indecision on the issue has opened the doors for environmentally hazardous activities relentlessly as deforestation, mining, and building construction that ensued in the region.
Experts say that excessive rainfall in Wayanad this season—about 60-70% higher than usual—has contributed significantly to the scale of the disaster. Abhilash S., Director of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Cochin University of Science and Technology, is quoted by several media outlets. He stated that the heavy rainfall accumulated over the last two weeks, followed by extreme rainfall on Tuesday, was the primary triggering factor for the massive flooding.
In 2019, 17 people died in a landslide that struck Puthumala, 10km (six miles) away from Tuesday’s disaster. A report by the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) then pointed out that the landslide was caused by rock mining and quarrying in the region. KFRI scientists opined that this entire area has very steep slopes and the only thing that holds it together is the vegetation. Other people held the view that rapid urbanization and increasing mining activities in surrounding areas have made the region even more fragile.
But in recent years, the Kerala government has allowed certain non-plantation activities in this region. “As a result, plantation owners have shifted to tourism and built mega structures for which the ground had to be leveled, making it even more fragile,” Mr Sajeev, a KFRI Scientist shared his view with the media.
The scientist says the government should go back to the Gadgil report that said fragile land must be managed in an entirely different way.
When all is said and done, Kerala still lacks in spirit for being farsighted in approach, while there are ideal examples worldwide to find better solutions to shield natural calamities by resorting to the most advanced early warning systems in the world to alert people of impending earthquakes. For instance, in Japan when a P-wave is detected by two or more of Japan’s 4,235 seismometers, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) analyzes the data and predicts the earthquake’s epicenter. The JMA then sends notifications to TV, radio, and cell networks in affected prefectures, sometimes as much as 10–20 seconds before the most severe shaking begins. These notifications are called Earthquake Early Warnings and include special sound alerts. When the alerts sound, people should take immediate action to protect themselves. Why are we lackadaisical in adopting such effective advanced measures? Remains a question unanswered.
The only way out is to make sure that our ecological systems are healthy by enforcing strict laws against environmentally hazardous activities like deforestation, mining, and building constructions according to whims and fancies of monetary gain.
Finally, ensure that those who are compelled to live in such ecologically sensitive areas for their earning livelihood, are ever mindful of impending danger and obey strictly the advanced warnings given by the authorities. Thus, we can handle any kind of climate change.
