Mining, rains and landslides: Chronicles of disaster foretold
Stone quarrying has been going on in the Western Ghats despite there being a close link between hard rock quarrying and slope failures in the form of landslides
Governments would like to lay the entire blame for the recent Wayanad landslide and the humongous loss of lives on the very heavy rains, claiming that the whole range of human interventions, such as quarrying of the rocks in the vicinity and levelling of the land to create tourist resorts with their lakes had no role to play in triggering this tragedy.
However, the intense rains themselves may be related to such activities as quarrying rocks. India is characterised by the world’s highest levels of aerosols, minute particles emanating from dust from construction, mining and quarrying, pulverising rocks to produce mechanical sand, automobile emissions, and burning of coal in thermal power plants. As water vapour in air laden with aerosols begins to condense, it initially forms myriads of small water droplets. These then coalesce to form larger, heavy water drops that lead to intense rain over shorter periods. So, what would otherwise have constituted a gentle drizzle lasting six hours, now beats down intensely for 30 minutes. The Konkan, the Western Ghats crestline and the adjoining Deccan Plateau regions of Maharashtra experienced such an intense lashing of rainfall last on June 22, 2021, while areas of Kerala suffered this again in mid-October that year. People in the hilly districts of Maharashtra are convinced that never have there been such severe episodes of very intense rain concentrated over a short period of time.
The floods of August 2018, preceded by unusually high rainfall, were the worst experienced by Kerala in nearly a century. Over 483 people died, and 140 went missing. The highly reputed River Research Centre (RRC) in Chalakudy, Kerala, has provided a detailed and instructive case study of the 2018 floods. The Chalakudy basin has a number of dams. In 2018, the catchments of the river received good rainfall from the second half of May, with a few high rainfall spells in June and July. The dams were quickly getting filled, and the monsoon was still very active, not even halfway through. Hence, it was evident that once the series of dams were full, heavy spells of rain would result in substantially higher floods. From July 17, 2018, onwards, RRC experts and the Chalakudy River Protection Forum made futile attempts to alert government officials of the need to take preventive measures, such as initiating the gradual release of water from the various dams to reduce the threat of severe floods. This was ignored, and it is certain that the maximum flood level could have been reduced by at least 1–2 metres, had there been enough storage space in the reservoirs.
The intense rains during the monsoon of 2021 in Konkan districts also led to several major landslides that took a heavy toll on human lives. The worst was at Taliye in Raigad district in which 124 people were killed. This is a region plagued by unregulated rock quarries that engage in extensive blasting along with deforestation triggered by road construction. A road is under construction to connect Khed to Mahabaleshwar through Hatlot Ghat. No provision is made to permit the flow of water, which consequently stagnates along the road. This resulted in a landslide at Birmani in Khed taluka, killing two people and five cattle.
These landslides and disasters in the Konkan region of Maharashtra in June–July 2021 were followed by a series of similar disasters in Kottayam and Idukki districts of Kerala around October 16, 2021. As in Maharashtra, landslides were accompanied by intense rainfall. And, just as in Maharashtra, in Kerala, rock quarries and similar disturbances were associated with the tragedies. In Kerala, the worst to suffer was Plappally in Koottickal in Kottayam. A number of quarries have been operating in this region for over a decade, adversely affecting people in many ways, and people had been agitating to stop their operation. The quarry operators paid no heed, and the quarries did not stop work even during torrential rains. So, even when landslides hit Koottickal on October 16, the quarries continued operation. Locals said that sounds of explosions from the quarries could be heard during the disaster. Although only three quarries are mentioned in the official data, more than 17 were spotted in the satellite image. As many as 5,924 quarries continue functioning in Kerala despite such calamities. In fact, the state government approved 223 new quarries after the 2018 floods. This is going on, although it is well established that there is a close link between hard rock quarrying and slope failures in the form of landslides.
In Kadanad, about 25 km as the crow flies from Koottickal, an attempt was made to put together carefully compiled information to combat this menace. In 2008, Maju Puthenkandam, as the president of the Kadanad panchayat, set up the Biodiversity Management Committee, whose activities were coordinated by several experts and volunteers in all 13 wards of the panchayat. By pooling together information from all farmers and other members of the community, Puthenkandam and the committee prepared the People’s Biodiversity Register. This document noted that the quarrying of rocks in the biodiversity-rich Perumkunnu Hills was detrimental to it and should be halted. This report was endorsed by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board. The Kerala High Court examined this case in 2012 and upheld the Kadanad gram panchayat’s decision not to allow quarrying as it was based on solid evidence. Vested interests then swung into action and alleged that the panchayat was being declared as an ecologically sensitive area, and farmers and people would only suffer even more by coming under the tyranny of the forest department. Regretfully, the forest department is serving as a tool of moneyed interests, and by harassing people, turns them against environmental protection. Due to this pressure, the Kadanad panchayat withdrew the resolution. But, a beginning has been made and one can only hope that this will lead to fruitful action in the new ICT revolution age.
Madhav Gadgil is an ecologist and founder of the Centre for Ecological Studies at the Indian Institute of Science. The views expressed are personal