By Siddhant Vashistha
Frequent landslides have made it clear that Kerala, India needs to control the business of quarrying.
On the seventh of August heavy rains were followed by a massive landslide in Kerala’s Idukki district. The landslide occurred at Pettimudi, a region that is a part of the tea estates which also join the fringes of the Eravikulam National Park. The estimated death toll reached 65 a few days back, with others still missing. During a night of heavy rain, the landslide swept away the houses of several tea estate workers while they slept. The disaster was another in a string of mishaps in the state during the monsoon season.
Over 500 people have died in Kerala due to natural disasters since 2018. With such natural disasters becoming commonplace in Kerala, this article tries to take a look at how quarrying contributes to the problem and why it is so hard to eliminate.
Kerala is the state that rings in the monsoon season in India, but in the past few years, the state has received unusually heavy amounts of rainfall. The Idukki disaster and several others are man-made. A string of human factors such as quarrying, deforestation, unscientific road construction, slope modification, sand-mining, construction on streams, and narrowing and blocking of drainage channels contribute to the frequent catastrophes.
The picture above is a map of the geology of Kerala. The tiny strip of highlighted land was not historically fragile to landslides and floods, but human activity has made it so.
Quarry Worry
Quarrying is a lucrative business in resource rich Kerala. Quarrying comes with heavy environmental damage, as not only does it destroy the local ecosystem, it also shakes and loosens the earth many kilometers away. The State Government of Kerala has time and again allowed quarrying in eco- logically sensitive zones, overlooking the scientific aspects and the risks of mining.
One of the most important reports regarding these dangers is by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), known as the Gadgil report.
The study, headed by scientist Madhav Gadgil, classified the whole of the Western Ghats region as an ecologically sen- sitive zone (ESZ), with categories of ESZ1, ESZ2, and ESZ3 being created, depending upon the sensitivity of the region. It recommended strict regulation on activities such as mining, road construction, railway lines, etc.
However, the government has rejected the report, as evidenced by permits given for mining and quarrying.
The High-Level Working Group (HLWG)’s report, which is a watered-down version of the Gadgil Committee’s report had demarcated 123 villages, or 13,108 sq. km as eco-sensitive areas (ESA) and had recommended a complete ban on quarrying and mining, but the Kerala government refused to implement this either.
According to a study by TV Sajeev, a principal scientist at the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), there are around 803 quarries located near these 25 ESZs (of the Gadgil report), which had witnessed landslides.
Dilutions in environmental norms for mining
What is even more preposterous is the dilution in environmental norms under the Pinarayi Vijayan led LDF govern- ment in Kerala.
In 2017 the government brought in a big change in quarry- ing operations, through an amendment in the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession (KMMC) Rules, 2015. The amendment makes no distinction between mining done with explosives and without explosives. It also reduced the minimum lowered reistance limit between a quarry and structures such rivers, canals, tanks, reservoirs and other public works, from 100 to 50 meters.
Another major amendment brought in 2018 to KKMC Rules removed the necessity of acquiring the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the District Collector for the mining of sand and clay, in turn relaxing the norms for procuring licenses.
The dilutions come at a time when Kerala registered a sum of 20,821 illegal mining cases in the period of 2011-16, such is the disregard of and ignorance towards environmental issues.
Unheard protests
Saying a mass people’s movement should be taken up to defeat the lobbies of mining and vested interest groups against the conservation of ecologically sensitive zones, would be misplaced, as such movements and protests are already underway. The interesting bit is that the government and bureaucrats deliberately side with quarry owners against the protesters.
Elected representatives have also been accused of corruption and both the quarry owners and the government are virtually complicit in the crimes meted out against the environment. In fact, the quarry lobby is so strong that flouting not one but several norms and stopping protesters through police action came easily. This was accompanied by a weakened Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), in villages such as Manjumala, Pathanpara.
A class problem?
The landslides and other natural disasters caused directly or indirectly by activities such as quarrying are, in effect, class problems too.
I will take the examples of the loss of lives of the tea estate workers in Pettimudi, Idukki, and the unheard protests of Pathanpura to be cases in point.
At the root of such manmade disasters and loss of lives is a class divide and the people in the lower sections, the marginalised and the poor, suffer the most. When we look at quarrying, it too serves the interests of the upper class, for whose houses, the land is dug. This can also be looked at in the context of climate change, where coastal communities with negative carbon footprints are the worst affected.
At the core is politics
By now, it is evident that the Kerala state government has not taken this issue seriously, and apart from the relief packages there has not been a sincere attempt to counter the hazards. Several studies and reports have been submitted to the Kerala government in the past few years and yet the action taken has not been substantial. The rot runs so deep that both the ruling party and the Opposition were against the protests.
Thus, even a political emancipation, with conservation of nature or bare survival on a fractured land looks like a far cry. The state’s future is inextricably linked to how it preserves and manages its natural environment while minimizing harm. For Kerala to have a future, consumption has to be reduced, and ecologists like Gadgil need to be heard, otherwise a grim reality of destruction is on the cards.
Siddhant Vashistha is a third-year student of journalism. He’s an environmentalist at heart and loves to debate ideas. He also enjoys observing the dance of nature.
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