Wayanad Landslide: Nature's Wrath Or Man-made Tragedy? | Kerala Disaster

Wayanad landslide is nature’s way of telling us humans to stop. To stop our greed for materialistic opportunities, to stop going beyond means to seek more monetary value, to stop taking environment and nature for granted. The repercussions, as everyone saw, could be devastating. A few days before the landslide, Wayanad experienced as much as 572 millimetres of rainfall in just 48 hours. This natural disaster shook the nation, and raised questions in our minds……what led to this disaster?

Just the incessant rains or are we humans somewhere equally responsible for it? Well, human interventions that include deforestation, and unplanned construction activities, especially in these landslide-prone areas, are said to be a major contributing factor. Here’s what the reports suggest. The landslide data ranging from 1950 to 2018, says that Wayanad had a forest area of 85% in the 50s. But by 2018, 62% of entire forest area was lost. One major factor is the increasing tourism activities in ecologically vulnerable areas. To meet these increasing needs, we construct roads through these forests, and homestays, and remove large amount of soil.

And, each day the vulnerability is increasing. Sanju Verma, National Spokesperson of the BJP called it "a man-made tragedy", saying that it was a result of "forests, hills, trees being cut rampantly to make way for lodges, resorts and hotels". The warning against this growing commercialisation is not new. In 2021 itself, over 500 illegal resorts and homestays were detected that operated illegally in Wayanad in Kerala. As tree huts and tents require no prior permission, owners find it easy to set up resorts. Such make-shift situations serve as shelters to many tourists, and mind you, such shelters have no prior safety measures. Meppadi, another landslide-hit village, has been witnessing rising construction activities, especially in the tourism sector. As per govt data, over 380 buildings, including residential and non-residential ones, registered by the local body come up every year.

Following the recent landslides in Wayanad, which have claimed over 300 lives and injuring hundreds others, the State Government is finally geared up to address activities that threaten the region’s ecology. Officers have been directed to clear all illegal homestays and resorts in the Western Ghats. Mining is also a major contributor to such disasters. The contractors dig deep pits to extract stones and other materials, without studying the geology of the area. There are many fractured quarries.

In future, climatic conditions are expected to become worse because of the emerging global warming. The frequency of landslides is likely to go up in hilly regions like Wayanad. Landslides are a natural phenomenon, and while one cannot prevent them entirely, steps can be taken to minimise their impact. Wayanad is one of many. We need to stop thinking from the individual perspective and start taking account of the powerful nature to evade its wrath.