Western Ghats – Bhartiyanews24x7

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...

Imagine all the rain Delhi gets in a year, packed into just 48 hours, and bucketed down over a small stretch of sloping mountain soil that’s already soaked to the brim by torrential Kerala monsoons. When the earth under their feet finally gave way, in the dead of night, two Wayanad villages slipped into oblivion. Mundakkai, and two miles downriver, Chooralmala met this last nightmare of their lives—a horrific cascade of mud, water and death—on July 30. At least 230 people were confirmed dead by July 31 night, but with nearly 200 still missing, that body count looked likely to swell. The worst part is, it was a tragedy foretold. Landslides are a near-endemic phenomenon on the eastern flank of Kerala, where it rises up to the mighty Western Ghats: the state records the highest number in the ...

Tag: Western Ghats

Once landslide susceptibility maps surrounding population centres are ready, monitoring the triggering mechanism would ensure that timely warnings are provided

The Wayanad blunders