The Deadly Landslides of Malabar

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THE HINDU KOCHI SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2019 GROUND ZERO 9 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE The deadly landslides of Malabar As Malabar faces up to rain-related tragedies, the debate shifts to whether ecologically sensitive areas should be free of human intervention. S. Anandan reports on the plight of the displaced in the hills of north Kerala uneesh V., 29, walks gingerly to the tarpaulin-covered front yard of his Stiny house as if the earth would give way if he stepped on it a little firm- ly. He doesn’t seem to trust the soil be- neath his feet any longer. He lives on Muthappankunnu hill, covered with young rubber trees, in Kavalappara, which is part of the Bhoodanam colony in Pothukallu panchayat in Kerala’s Ma- lappuram district. This is where land- less tribals secured land after the Bhoo- dan movement more than six decades ago. On the night of August 8, the hill suddenly moved, shaking his faith in it. The rains had been relentless since August 4, but they turned particularly raucous from August 7, flooding the low- lands of Nilambur taluk in the Chaliyar river basin. Almost all of Pothukallu’s low-lying areas were submerged, forc- ing people to seek shelter elsewhere. Water rose at an alarming pace in the thodu (streamlet) at the foot of Muthap- pankunnu hill as well. Several hill people, including Suneesh, a construction worker, were without work for a few days. On August 8 evening, a clutch of youth in the neighbourhood decided to walk down the road that split the hill in the middle to gauge the situation. “Word had spread that the Thudimut- ti bridge, a kilometre downstream on the thodu, was flooded. We went wear- ing raincoats. The stream was fierce. Last year, when it rained heavily, there was fear of landslides, so the hill people were evacuated to relief camps. But nothing happened. So, we were not particularly alarmed this time around,” re- calls Suneesh. It was already dark when the young men returned. “There was a power out- age. My neighbour Priyadarsh, 32, and I stood in front of my house and chatted for a bit,” says Suneesh. “He then decided to go check on his mother and grandmother. Just as he stepped into his hom- estead, there was a wild rumble from above. It was as though a thousand roll- er shutters had been slammed down. Fear made me motionless for a while. Moments later, I ran into my house to “There were 125 rain-related deaths in Kerala between August 8 and 21.” Rescuers stumble upon the body of a woman at the landslide site at Kavalappara in Malappuram. (Below) Debris of the massive landslide at see my pregnant wife and mother in Puthumala in Wayanad stretched over 10 km. * THULASI KAKKAT shock. We did not know what to do,” he says, his voice trembling. Half an hour later, the survivors on had to carry out an eleventh hour evac- alert as water in the rivulet in front of five-km radius of Kavalappara, the tah- <> Eight per cent of Kerala is the tiny island of green who had been uation of his ageing parents, pregnant our house was rising. But when the de- sildar of Nilambur, Subhash Chandra classified as a critical zone for spared by the landslide gathered on wife and children. bris hit us all suddenly, there was a mad Bose, says the entire taluk has just three mass movements. Further, what remained of the road. “We real- The Pothukallu gram panchayat has scramble to get to higher ground. I saw a active granite quarries. “It is not the last since the 19th century, over ised we would not be able to cross the now submitted a proposal to the go- 7-year-old boy in the neighbourhood stone extracted from a quarry that caus- 50% of land with tropical swollen thodu. The hill had collapsed vernment to rehabilitate all the 270 fa- clutching onto the sinking pillar of our es a landslide,” says Sajeev. and we spent the night in dread in the milies from the Kavalappara area, says house and crying for help. I was able to According to Ali Moideen, chairman forests and grasslands has small courtyard of my parents’ house,” Valsala Aravindan, Bhoodanam ward pull him up. My sister-in-law was short of the Quarry Crusher Coordination been converted to says Suneesh. member and panchayat vice president. and although I stretched out my hand to Committee, with environmental clea- monoculture plantations and As rescue workers struggle to re- “We have also decided not to allow her, the debris consumed her,” she says. rances being made mandatory for all agricultural fields. This has trieve the bodies of Priyadarsh, his farming in the hill,” she says. With no place to go, her mother, broth- quarries, the number of granite quar- made the terrain much more mother Ragini and grandmother De- At Puthumala, once a scenic village er and his two children are moving to a ries in operation in Kerala has come vulnerable to landslides. vayani from the debris, Suneesh sits on on the slopes of plantation estates, As- rented house at Kalpetta. down from nearly 6,000 in 2010 to 728 Roxy Mathew Koll his haunches nearby, unable to move. ghar, 32, waits as excavators look for the The Meppadi panchayat is seeking now. Malappuram accounts for over 100 Scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology “He is terrified,” says Pratheesh Pra- missing. He says he was among those patronage to buy some 10 acres of low- of them, he says. But no one is disputing sad, 35, Priyadarsh’s brother, who lives who protested the operation of a granite land to rehabilitate at least 100 families the fact that unlicensed, unregulated in a rented house in Uppada, a neigh- quarry close to the area. from Puthumala. quarries are also in operation. soons of 2018 and 2019. These are com- bouring village. “They all came over to “Blasting at the Pachakkad quarry A State-wide ban clamped on quarry- pound events attributable to increased my place for 15 days this time last year. used to be a pain. Rock pieces would hit The role of quarries ing in the wake of the landslides has human intervention,” says Roxy Math- They were thinking of coming again. It’s our houses once in a while. After a lot of Kerala was on the path to recovery and now been lifted, except in Malappuram ew Koll, scientist at the Indian Institute not my loss alone. Several people have struggle, we managed to get it closed,” rebuilding after the flood inAugust last where the district administration has of Tropical Meteorology. “Rising ocean lost their close relatives.” says Asghar, whose father Aboobacker, year. The flood had also rekindled the chosen to continue the ban. In view of temperatures are resulting in large fluc- 62, a Saudi returnee, is still missing. An debate on whether the State would have the frightening regularity of natural ha- tuations in the monsoon winds, so it oc- When the hills collapsed early landslide near the abandoned been better off had it embraced the zards now, the State Directorate of Envi- casionally ends up in surges of moisture This month Kerala was battered by an quarry had nearly sunk his two-storey Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel ronment and Climate Change has initiat- from the Arabian Sea being dumped ov- erratic monsoon for the second year in house abutting the road on the lower (WGEEP) report of August 2011. Nota- ed consultations with other er peninsular India. The rise in extreme a row. The worst tragedies have unfold- side of the hill. “Since it was raining hea- bly, the panel, which was chaired by departments and stakeholders to out- rainfall events over India from 1950 to ed in the hills of Malabar this time: in <> We were alert as water in the vily, my father went in a car with our ecologist Madhav Gadgil, had incorpo- law quarrying in ecologically sensitive 2018 is about threefold. It is a new Kavalappara in Malappuram and Puthu- rivulet in front of our house neighbour Avaran (68) to take a look. rated the Nilambur-Meppadi hills in the regions based on the landslide suscepti- norm,” he explains. mala in Wayanad, separated by just six was rising. But when the debris Both are missing,” says Asghar. topmost category of Ecologically Sensi- bility zones mapped by the National Meteorological data indicate that Ma- kilometers across the hills. hit us all suddenly, there was a Given the torrential rain and crevices tive Zones (ESZ-1). Centre for Earth Science Studies in lappuram received 512% and 248% ex- There were 125 rain-related deaths in mad scramble to get to higher in some of the hills above — at Chooral- Initial discussions revolved around 2010. cess rainfall on August 7 and 8, respec- Kerala between August 8 and 21, accord- ground. My sister-in-law was mala, Mundakai and Attamala — Puthu- the role of quarries in rattling the fragile The map is being updated now. “The tively. In Wayanad, the rain was beyond ing to the State Disaster Management short. Although I stretched out mala residents, many of whom are tea environs of these hills. Based on GIS new regulations will also encompass normal by 312% and 867%, respectively, Authority. About 65 landslides were re- and cardamom plantation workers, or mapping data, two scientists of the Ker- measures to restore abandoned quar- on the same days. my hand to her, the debris ported, mostly in the Malabar region.

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