Politicians in Kerala are silent on why the Uttarakhand deluge is a warning to the southern State about the dangers of rampant urbanisation of the mighty Western Ghats, building cities by razing hills and felling centuries-old trees
During the last weeks of the 2011 monsoon, Kerala’s Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph had cried aloud hysterically that he was losing sleep over the fate of the 117-year-old ancient-technology Mullaperiyar dam. Political parties in Kerala had then unleashed a campaign against Tamil Nadu, the beneficiary of the Mullaperiyar reservoir sitting at the very top of the Western Ghats on the border between the two States, protesting against its objections to the construction of a new dam to replace the old one. The basic premise was that the old Surki-concrete dam could break any moment causing over 10 TMCs of water in that reservoir to gush down in supersonic speeds to the giant Idukki reservoir downstream which could result in a breach in the Idukki arch dam. If that happens, it would be the end of everything in five Kerala districts.
To those observing the developments from outside, it was like a situation where an entire people had gone paranoid: The youth wing of a national party climbed up the hills to Mullaperiyar to dig out canals to let water off the reservoir and prevent a dam-break. Politically-influenced geologists kept on arguing that the dam was sitting on a seismic faultline. Animated films of gigantic columns of water swallowing region after region filled the airtime of TV channels. The Opposition ‘built’ a human wall right from the base of the Mullaperiyar dam all the way to the shores of the Arabian Sea. Someone even made a movie of Hollywood dimensions to tell the world about the watery grave waiting to swallow millions of people and billions of other fauna and flora in the region.
But alas! The Surki dam refused to break. Politicians continued their gimmick based on the universal theory of the short public memory. It is surprising that not a single word has been heard from anybody over the Mullaperiyar issue after that period. What is not at all surprising is the silence the very same Kerala politicians kept when Uttarakhand saw one of the worst possible natural disasters that acquired hellish dimensions because of human interference in areas where nature never allowed it. Nobody was heard speaking about how the Uttarakhand deluge could be a lesson for Kerala which has never bothered to reconsider the rampant urbanisation of the mighty Western Ghats — building cities amidst the forests by razing hills, felling centuries-old trees, dynamiting rocky hillocks, blocking natural flow of water at every possible point with dams of all sizes.
“I don’t think the failure of our leaders and policy-makers to see the obvious message Uttarakhand gave us with regard to the Western Ghats portion in Idukki district was innocent. It is deliberate, because any word on it would bring to the fore once again the discussions on the relevance of the Madhav Gadgil Committee report on the Ghats, the last straw we have got to rescue and protect our territory, nature and ourselves,” says Jayakumar, a sociologist-environmentalist.
Geologically speaking, Idukki, the second largest of the 14 districts in Kerala, is the south’s Uttarakhand, or more than that. Five districts lying west of it are dependent on it — Idukki is almost entirely covered by the Western Ghats — for water to drink and for agricultural irrigation. Idukki is home to the tallest peak — Anamudi — in south India. It is also home to some of the most picturesque terrains anywhere in the world. Idukki boasts of having one of the most crucial biological hotspots and rainforests in the entire world.
But the paradoxes are appalling in nature and magnitude. Degradation of Idukki’s nature, environment and ecology had started centuries ago with the first planters entering the area with plants of tea, coffee, cardamom and the shrink-extend wonder called rubber. Munnar, known the world over as Kerala’s tea country, is a typical example of how human beings can destroy nature for their petty goals. Sitting at the top of Idukki’s share of Western Ghats, Munnar is no more a mountain range known for its biodiversity but just another destroyed tourist attraction.
“Munnar is said to have over 300 hotels and resorts, officially. But the reality is that Munnar and its ‘suburbs’ have over 1,500 such facilities,” says environmentalist Babu John. “This is only going to get worse”, he says.
But what is making Idukki equivalent to Uttarakhand in its potential to turn into a catastrophe, is the mania for infrastructure development. Geographically speaking, Idukki, like Uttarakhand, is to the terrains of northern India, lying downward of it, is the head of Kerala and the body — at least five densely populated districts — lies westward from it. In that sense, any major geological disturbance in the Idukki portion of Western Ghats will affect these five districts in a bad manner. But politicians and policy-makers have always successfully tried to make Idukki the base of Kerala’s development by installing power projects and constructing all sorts of dams across every available brook, stream and river.
Idukki district has over 15 major dams and dozens of other smaller and minor dams. The eight hydro-electric projects based on huge reservoirs including the giant Idukki arch dam account for over 65 per cent of the total power consumed by Kerala.
The real problem, according to hydrologists and geologists, may occur if cloudbursts occur. Arguments to the effect that Idukki or any place in Kerala does not have such a history are no reassurance, they say, agreeing with the worry politicians had expressed in the most exaggerated form during the Mullaperiyar agitation days. But then, Periyar had seen a flood that led to the redrawing of terrains back in 1341. Munnar in Idukki had seen a deluge in 1924 in which even railway systems had got washed away. When that happened, Idukki district did not have even one-thousandth of the man-made structures it presently has.