Once landslide susceptibility maps surrounding population centres are ready, monitoring the triggering mechanism would ensure that timely warnings are provided
On July 30, two villages, Mundakkai and Chooralmala, in the Wayanad district of Kerala, were hit by landslides. On October 4, while noting that the disaster ranked among the deadliest in India, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 231 people had died and 41 remained missing. The catastrophic event has once again exposed our helplessness in the face of nature’s fury. At the same time, it has raised questions about our approach to disaster management not only in the area of Wayanad that was affected this time and that has suffered a few deadly landslides over the last four decades, but for the State as a whole.No longer relatively disaster-free With the sea to its west and the Western Ghats to its east, Kerala used to be considered a relatively disaster-free zone. Its development activi...