Our Crumbling Hill Town

The Wayanad death toll continues to rise. Frankly, I don’t even know the latest figures. Army authorities, engaged in the massive rescue operation involving nearly 1,600 personnel, including those from the Police, Navy and the NDRF, do not expect to find many more survivors. Continuing rains, in any case, didn’t permit the operations to be faster. There could be loss of perhaps 600-800 innocent lives due to the unfortunate landslides. Loss of property and livelihoods probably can’t even be calculated. Satellite images, from the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO had estimated that a mind- boggling 86,000 square metres of land slipped and the debris travelled several kilometres along the river, devastating many settlements on the way. Tragic calamity, to say the least.

Why Did This Happen And Could It Have Been Avoided?
Wayanad district, part of the Western Ghats, received 140 mm of rain in about 24 hours – five times its normal precipitation – during this period. The beautiful hill station, at an altitude of a little over 5,000 feet, attracts lots of visitors and, like all our hill towns, has witnessed ongoing construction over the decades to provide for the influx. An earlier landslide had also occurred around the same location. The Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) of about 60,000 square km, in the Western Ghats had been under study by a high powered panel and their 2011 report didn’t receive enough attention due to the usual Centre-state differences. Some action could’ve been taken to ring-fence the vulnerable areas where no mining, quarrying, thermal projects and red category industries and buildings above a certain size should not have been permitted. The Union home minister asserted that a warning was given to the state about the current landslides but the Kerala CM refuted this.

The oldest mountain range in the country is the Aravalis, followed by the Western Ghats and finally the youngest, the Himalayas. So, the Western Ghats are only a little less fragile than the Himalayas and need special care. Past records show that the ESA in the Ghats just cannot support unfettered construction and inflow of tourists. In fact, the problem is for all hill stations in India which are under threat of devastation because they are all receiving several hundred times the footfalls they were designed for. Instead of developing new hill resorts, successive governments have relentlessly allowed expansion of the old ones.

It won’t be wrong to say that after independence, we have not developed a single new hill station! The British built – almost all 100 to 200 years ago – Srinagar, Shimla, Mussoorie, Mahabaleshwar, Darjeeling, Nainital, Kodaikanal, Munnar, Lansdowne etc., which just cannot go on supporting the hordes that go there all year long. Civic infrastructure in all these places is woefully inadequate. Manali became popular only after Nehru’s sojourn there, perhaps in the late 1950s or early 1960s, but it too has seen many disasters.

Having witnessed several tragedies in the mountains, we don’t seem to have learnt any lessons. In a recent article, noted environmentalist Amitav Ghosh has even talked about a threat to Goa – arguably the fastest growing city in the country. He cites the 2011 study, led by the great ecologist Madhav Gadgil who had warned that unless the house building, road construction and settlement activities are halted or at the very least, slowed down drastically and the number of visitors to the ESAs is strictly controlled, we should expect many more disasters all over the Western Ghats! There could either be highly priced entry tickets or a system of lotteries to visit the hills. A press report about this 2011 study actually had a shocking headline ‘We should start weeping for Goa, just as we wept for Wayanad … India’s climate disasters are man-made’. He speaks the truth. I am sure many were rattled to read this recent story but, I am also sure that most of us would forget the dire warning very soon! With an improved forecasting system, we may be able to mitigate the losses from natural disasters but the fact remains that we need to do something to avoid such happenings.

We are all aware that our beautiful neighbouring country Bhutan, has for decades, controlled the number of tourists into their pristine land even if that means loss of huge earnings for them.

There is an urgent need to develop new hill stations which the governments must plan without further delay. And, unless we want the new stations also to die like the 100 - 200-year-old ones, these must be retained as charming little places with low-rise, predominantly wooden structures and not massive tall hotels and other facilities. Extreme Weather Events are only going to increase – in intensity and frequency – which would mean more landslides and catastrophes, not only in the Ghats but also other hilly regions i.e. the Himalayas and the Aravalli’s. We must prepare for the same.

Let there be no repeat of the Wayanad tragedy.