Kerala’s fragile ecosystem, extreme rainfall and increasing population are the many reasons behind the landslides that struck the hilly region of north Kerala’s Wayanad district on Monday, killing at least 150 people and leaving more than 100 injured.
The affected areas in Wayanad include Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala, and Noolpuzha towns, which remain cut off following the landslide. An Indian Navy team from the Ezhimala Naval Base in Kannur district was dispatched to Chooralmala to assist with rescue operations, at the request of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The Army and Air Force have also mobilised for rescue operations in the area, which have been hampered by the collapse of a main bridge in Chooralmala.
The disaster is turning out to be one of the worst disasters in the recent past in terms of casualties, according to experts.
The event brings back the memory of the 2018 flooding disaster caused by excessive rains that killed more than 500 people.
What Happened in Wayanad?
Wayanad district received more than 140 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours between the mornings of Monday and Tuesday, about five times more than is expected, per the India Meteorological Department (IMD). Several areas within the district reported more than 300 mm of rainfall during this period.
The landslide was triggered by extremely heavy rainfall caused by warming of the Arabian Sea, according to climate experts.
According to S Abhilash, director of the Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), a deep mesoscale cloud system formed off the coast in the Arabian Sea causing extreme rainfall in Wayanad, Calicut, Malappuram and Kannur. The clouds were similar to those formed in 2019, he quoted The Times of India as saying.
There were major landslides during and after the 2018 flooding event, including in Wayanad. The district also saw a few smaller landslides in 2019.
The southeast Arabian Sea is becoming warmer, causing atmospheric instability above this region, including Kerala. The climate change has made the rain-laden areas with deep clouds extend southward, which is causing excessive rain.
Why is Kerala Prone to Disasters?
Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, roughly half of Kerala consists of hills and mountainous regions with slopes greater than 20 degrees, making these areas prone to landslides during heavy rains.
The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, formed in 2011 under ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s chairmanship, had recommended that 75% of the 129,037 sq km of the Western Ghats covering Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, and Kerala be declared an environmentally sensitive area because of its dense, rich forests and a large number of endemic flora and fauna. The panel’s recommendations were not implemented.
According to former earth sciences ministry secretary and climate scientist M Rajeevan, the Western Ghats regions of Kerala, which once had thick forest cover now have rubber trees, which cannot hold the soil together.
Construction activities in vulnerable areas also lead to disasters. “A lot of construction activities are happening in our state [Kerala] in vulnerable areas. We built more roads and culverts. However, even now our engineering structures are being built based on the amount of rainfall and intensity of rainfall in older days. There is a need to rethink new or added risk factors while constructing roads or culverts. We are not providing room for the river in many places and this is an important factor for flash floods. Our unscientific construction mechanisms are major causes for the destruction we are facing,” Sreekumar told The Week.
Girish Gopinath, head of the Kufos Department of climate variability and aquatic ecosystems, had attributed human activities in the periphery of Wayand and Idukki high ranges as the major factors contributing to landslides, as mentioned in a report by The New Indian Express.
Previous Landslides and Floods in Kerala
The last major landslide in the State occurred in 2020 when an avalanche crashed down on tea plantation workers in the Kanan Devan Hills of Idukki district, killing 65 people, mostly estate workers.
In 2018, devastating floods killed more than 400 people across Kerala, destroying homes, forested areas, and infrastructure.
In 2021, dozens died due to multiple landslides and floods in Kerala’s Kottayam and Idukki districts. Rain-related incidents such as landslips and flash floods claimed several lives in 2022 as well. The Climate Report of India, released by the IMD in January 2023, revealed that extreme weather events claimed 32 lives in Kerala in 2022.
In July 2022, the Ministry of Earth Sciences informed the Lok Sabha that Kerala witnessed the highest number of major landslides in the country over the past seven years. Of the 3,782 landslides between 2015 and 2022, 2,239 (nearly 59.2%) were reported from Kerala.