In a letter to the principal secretary of the department of science and technology, the state relief commissioner has asked him to direct all scientific institution to not visit the sites.
“You are requested to direct all Science and Technology institutions in the State of Kerala not to undertake any field visits to Meppadi Panchayath, Wayanad which is notified as a disaster affected area,” the letter said.
The order also states that the scientific community should refrain from sharing any statement or opinion without permission.
“The scientific community shall be directed to restrain themselves from sharing their opinions and study reports to media. If any study is to be undertaken in the disaster affected area, prior permission shall be obtained from Kerala State Disaster Management Authority,” the letter stated.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, however, later asked the officials to take back the order.
Meanwhile, new satellite images released by National Remote Sensing Centre, a key centre under Isro, showed the extent of devastation.
The high-resolution before-and-after images captures by the Risat (whose radar can penetrate clouds) and Cartosat-3 (advanced optical satellite) show that approximately 86,000 square metres of land slipped away. The resulting debris flow travelled about 8km along the Iruvaiphuzha river, devastating towns and settlements in its path.
Studies point to deadly mix of climate change, environmental neglect
Climate change, fragile terrain and loss of forest cover created the perfect recipe for the devastating landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district that claimed 123 lives, according to studies conducted over the years. Extremely heavy rain triggered a series of landslides in the hilly areas of Wayanad.
According to the landslide atlas released by the Indian Space Research Organisation’s National Remote Sensing Centre last year, 10 out of the 30 most landslide-prone districts in India were in Kerala, with Wayanad ranked 13th.
It said 0.09 million square kilometres in the Western Ghats and the Konkan hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) were prone to landslides.
“The vulnerability of inhabitants and households is more significant in the Western Ghats due to the very high population and household density, especially in Kerala,” the report read.
A study published by Springer in 2021 said all landslide hotspots in Kerala were in the Western Ghats region and concentrated in Idukki, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Wayanad, Kozhikode and Malappuram districts.
It said about 59 per cent of total landslides in Kerala occurred in plantation areas.
A 2022 study on depleting forest cover in Wayanad showed that 62 per cent of forests in the district disappeared between 1950 and 2018 while plantation cover rose by around 1,800 per cent.
The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, said around 85 per cent of the total area of Wayanad was under forest cover until the 1950s.
According to scientists, climate change was increasing the possibility of landslides in the Western Ghats, one of the eight “hottest hotspots” of biological diversity in the world.
Recurring disasters in Kerala
In August 2018, Kerala experienced a devastating flood that claimed the lives of 483 people and was considered the state’s worst flood in a century. The catastrophe not only resulted in the loss of lives but also caused extensive damage to property and livelihoods, prompting the central government to declare it a “calamity of severe nature”.
As Kerala was recovering from the 2018 floods, another tragedy struck in 2019 when a landslide in Puthumala, Wayanad, approximately 10 km from the currently affected areas, claimed 17 lives. In October 2021, heavy rainfall triggered landslides in Idukki and Kottayam districts, resulting in the death of 35 people.
According to data provided by the IMD, heavy rainfall and flood-related incidents in 2021 led to the loss of 53 lives in Kerala. Exactly a year later, in August 2022, landslides and flash floods caused by heavy rains claimed 18 lives, damaged hundreds of properties, and forced thousands of people to seek shelter in relief camps, as reported by the state government.
During the 2022 rain-related incidents, over 5,000 individuals were evacuated from disaster-hit and disaster-prone regions of the state and accommodated in 178 relief camps. The ministry of earth sciences has reported that Kerala has experienced the highest number of landslides in the country, with 2,239 out of 3,782 landslides occurring in the state between 2015 and 2022.
(With agency inputs)