Thiruvananthapuram: Yet another Left MLA has questioned the environmentalists' logic that landslides were triggered by human intervention. “During the recent floods, I found more landslides inside forests than outside,” said Raju Abraham, CPM's Ranni MLA who was denied a chance to speak during the special Assembly session held on August 30.
The MLA said his attempt to reach the Kakki dam during the floods was thwarted because of the innumerable landslides inside the forest. “All the roads leading to Gavi, too, were destroyed by the landslides inside the forest,” he said.
Raju echoed what certain CPM and left-leaning MLAs said inside the Assembly on August 30. Nilambur's MLA, CPM independent P V Anwar who had allegedly violated rules to construct a water theme park, was the first to hurl the rhetorical poser.
“Why have landslides and landslips occurred in deep forests that have not been touched for centuries by even a shovel, leave alone JCBs.” P C George, too, said that he could not take scientists like Madhav Gadgil seriously because landslides had occurred even inside forests. CPM's Devikulam MLA S Rajendran had even gone to the extent of saying that there was no point in issuing stop memos to resorts constructed on hillsides.
Nonetheless, Raju said he was not attempting to align with what the Left MLAs had said in the Assembly. “I was only speaking about what I had witnessed,” he said. Raju also said there was an element of unpredictability to landslides, suggesting it was more a natural phenomenon than a man-made one. “This time there were no landslides in areas that had witnessed the phenomenon a year ago,” Raju said.
He also said a landslide forecast system was the need of the hour. “Just like we have a volcano-prediction mechanism we should have a system in place to forecast landslides,” Raju said. However, he added that he was not sure whether there was any such technology in any other part of the world.
When asked whether rampant constructions on hillsides contributed to landslides, he said it was for scientists and experts to comment upon. When Raju was told that the number of dead people made the difference between a landslide inside a forest and outside, this is how he responded. “You seem to be concerned only about humans. What about animal deaths. Thousands of animals, considerably more than humans, had perished during the floods,” Raju said.
The Ranni MLA refused to be drawn into the controversy related to his outburst following the lifting of dam shutters on August 14. His comment, at the peak of the crisis, that he was not informed about the lifting of shutters had angered the party, and was said to be one of the reasons why he was not given a chance to speak during the special session though his constituency was one of the worst affected.
“The red alert was issued. So no one can say that they were not adequately warned,” Raju said. Almost in the same breath he said that red alerts were so common that people had ceased to take notice. “Red alert was issued on August 8, 9 and 11. It was withdrawn and then issued on August 13. Since nothing happened when the alert was issued earlier, people did not take the August 13 alert seriously,” Raju said.
Four days after the special Assembly session, Onmanorama had asked eminent ecologist professor Madhav Gadgil if landslides were triggered by human intervention how did landslides occur inside pristine forests.
He brushed aside the forest analogy saying it was too simplistic. “You cannot have a 'one cause one effect' understanding of landslides. It is an interplay of factors that causes the event,” Gadgil said. “Rampant constructions, done without a thought for the environment, increases the probability of landslides.”
Landslides inside forest areas are nothing to be surprised about. “It is a natural phenomenon,” said environment scientist K Soman. “As part of a natural weathering process, crevices in rocks get saturated with water. And when the pressure of the accumulated water and other debris gets the better of the soil and root system that binds the terrain, water will burst out with hellish force,” Soman said. The only difference is, in non-forest areas, thanks to senseless human intervention, it happens regularly.
Landslides inside the forests can also be man-made. Activities in non-forest areas can remote-control devastation inside the forest. “The consequences of quarry operations are felt not just in the immediate vicinity of a quarry,” said T V Sajeev, scientist at Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI). “When each explosion takes place, the vibrations would travel through the rocks 17 times faster than the speed of sound. Such fast-moving subterranean vibrations will unsettle the interiors of hills situated far deep in the forest, leaving it loose and vulnerable for a heavy rain to wash it all down in a mighty torrent,” Sajeev said.
Dr Sajeev said forest fires, which are mostly man-made, too could lead to landslides. “A burnt tree loses its capacity to bind the soil, the rocks and sand.
So the soil in vast stretches burnt black and dry by forest fires will be vulnerable to intense and ceaseless rainfall,” he said.
