Could `Gadgil’ have averted this mammoth disaster?

You can't blame Nature for not giving a warning. Warnings were aplenty—violent, highly visible, and almost annual. 

 Exactly 40 years ago, in July 1984, fourteen lives were lost and 80 homes washed off in a massive landslide in Mundakkai, one of the two villages in the Wayanad district where over 250 human lives were shredded into pieces in Nature's midnight madness on July29-30.

 Perhaps not coincidentally, the Mundakkai-Chooramala landslide and floods came exactly 100 years after the 1924 floods that devastated substantial parts of Kerala. Thousands of people perished in the "floods of Ninety-nine" (called so because 2024 was 1099 in the Malayalam calendar).

 Fast forward: Karinchola Mala in the Kozhikode district in 2018 (14 dead); Kavalappara in the Malappuram district in 2019 (59 dead); Puthumala in the Wayanad district in 2019 (17 dead); and, Pettimudi in the Idukki district in 2020 (70 dead). These are but a few of the scores of landslides that struck Kerala's section of the Western Ghats in the last 40 years. The countless landslips in the Wayanad and Idukki districts are apart from these. 

 Sensitive mountains

 The Western Ghats is home to three-fourths the area of Idukki district and a half of Wayand's. A substantial section of these territories are very sensitive--including Mundakkai. The highly-vilified Western Ghats Ecological Expert Panel (WGEEP), headed by the globally revered ecologist Madhav Gadgil, had classified Western Ghats into three Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ). Mundakkai fell under ESZ-1, the most sensitive one, requiring the highest level of protection. 

 Dr. Gadgil the other day termed the Mundakkai-Chooramala disaster as a `man-made' one and pulled up the Kerala government for not implementing his committee’s recommendations. He suggested that the immense tragedy could have been averted had the authorities acted upon the WGEEP’s report. "No development should have taken place in these areas," he told The Hindu newspaper in an interview after the Mundakkai disaster.

 Across the Western Ghats region in Wayanad and Idukki, mountainsides have been hollowed out for construction, huge rocks gorged out by quarries, large trees felled by timber poachers, and hills flattened for farming and housing.

Climate change's share

True, climate change has contributed to the widespread ecological damage to the Western Ghats, as elsewhere in the world. But, as Dr. Gadgil points out, the Mundakkai-Chooramala death and destruction seem man-made. The area, like many in Wayanad, has seen intense environmental destruction. A stone quarry just 2 km from the area had dug out large quantities of rock thus destabilising the soil balance (the quarry closed sometime back).

 The land grab and deforestation by `settler' farmers over a long period--often encouraged by the political class, religious establishments, and special-interest groups-- is a key cause of the environmental destruction in Wayanad. Thousands of Adivasis, the traditional owners of land in most parts of Wayanad, have been tricked out of their properties. Religious institutions hold large tracks of fertile and wooded lands in the district and hence have vested interests in opposing environmental regulations. 

Tourism’s evils

The explosive growth of the real estate business in the wake of the discovery of Wayanad's tourism potential is another villain. Wayanad now has more resorts, homestays, and hotels than the region's carrying capacity can afford--like in Munnar, which is a disaster in waiting. "Wayanad is no longer Wayanad," is a refrain by people who resent the construction boom promoted by tourism development. The district’s people, who had welcomed the prosperity and job opportunities opened up by tourism, have started noticing the environmental risks.

The Gadgil recommendations

Perhaps this is the right time to revisit the debunked Gadgil panel report. The committee was set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in March 2010 and Dr. Gadgil and his fellow scientists submitted their report in August the following year. The report, a comprehensive study of the ecological state of the Western Ghats, contains a series of well-thought-out recommendations for conserving the rich biodiversity and ecological integrity of the Ghats.

 The panel recommended a complete ban on mining, quarrying, and construction of thermal power plants and large-scale constructions in ESZ-1. Less strict regulations were proposed for ESZ-2 and ESZ-3. The report called for a Western Ghats Ecology Authority to coordinate the protection efforts. It also wanted local-level Biodiversity Management Committees to be set up to get local communities involved in the Ghats protection initiatives.

The Gadgil report is a landmark document in India's environmental policy framework. The recommendations aimed to balance developmental needs with ecological preservation and focused on the long-term sustainability of the Western Ghats. However, the report faced stiff resistance, particularly from the development lobbies, politicians, and special interest groups such as the Catholic Church. (Remember the iconic picture of a bishop leading a road blockade in Idukki district?) Most political parties backed the powerful and influential settler community’s short-term economic interests and, over time, `Gadgil’ turned out to be a dirty word.

The Kasturi Rangan report

The result was the setting up of the Dr. Kasturi Rangan-led high-level working group in 2012, which submitted its report in 2013. The Kasturi Rangan report greatly watered down the Gadgil report, but it too was opposed by the lobbyists. Gradually, the historic initiative launched by Dr. Gadgil fizzled out. 

Implementing the recommendations would have significantly enhanced Western Ghats’ ecological health, and in hindsight, perhaps averted the July 30 disaster. The 82- year-old Dr. Gadgil warns: "Only if the Kerala Government takes the report seriously can such disasters be averted." 

The one great pointer emerging from the disaster is this: It's high time the ESZ regulations were brought back and effectively implemented in Wayanad and Idukki districts--not just for the preservation of Western Ghats’ mountains and forests but for the protection of a substantial number of humans as well.