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The Wayanad landslides on July 30 were not just because the district in Kerala received 6 per cent of its annual rainfall in a matter of few hours. They were also the result of years of relentless exploitation of an ecologically fragile region. The disaster, which claimed over 400 lives, can be traced back to activities that have systematically weakened the natural defences of the plateau, set high in the Western Ghats. Satellite images analysed by Down To Earth (DTE) show that Wayanad has at least 48 stone quarries. The fact that the quarries are visible in the satellite images suggest that they are either operational or abandoned without the required backfilling of pits and plantation of trees, which is mandated under law to ensure stability of the affected landscape.
World Weather Attribution, a global consortium of climate scientists studying the impact of global warming on extreme weather events, also highlighted in its August 14 report that “factors such as quarrying for building materials” may have contributed to the increased susceptibility of the slopes to landslides when the heavy rain fell.
To understand the spread of quarries in Wayanad, which ranks 13th of the 147 landslide-prone districts in the country as per the Landslide Atlas of India, DTE analysed satellite imagery of quarrying sites from open-source database Open-StreetMap. The imagery was then superimposed on a map of the district to assess if the quarries fall in ecologically sensitive areas (ESAs) identified by a High-Level Working Group in 2013.
The High-Level Working Group was established by the Union environment ministry in April 2012 to formulate an “all-round and holistic approach for sustainable and equitable development” for the Western Ghats. Led by Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, former chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation, the group identified 4,156 villages, spanning 59,940 sq km—37 per cent of the mountain range—as ESAs and recommended a ban on environmentally damaging activities in these areas. These villages had at least 20 per cent of the area under natural landscape, including regions with high biological richness, wildlife corridors or heritage sites. Accepting the recommendations, the Union environment ministry in November 2013, issued directions under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EPA) that prohibit new quarrying, mining and other environmentally damaging activities in ESAs.
But DTE found that 15 of the 48 quarries in Wayanad are located in the 13 villages identified as ESAs. In fact, nine of the quarries are within the forests in two ESA villages—Kidanganad and Noolpuzha.
“The use of explosives in quarrying generates vibrations that disturb the soil profile, which is particularly dangerous for Wayanad’s critical slopes prone to landslides,” says C P Rajendran, adjunct professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. He explains that quarrying not only creates fractures in the rock but also widens existing ones, allowing water to seep in during monsoons. This increased pressure on the soil heightens the risk of landslides.
More Wayanad-like disasters could be in the making across the Western Ghats as none of the states that share the mountain range have finalised ESAs even though a decade has passed since the Union environment ministry accepted the Kasturirangan report and amended the EPA to provide a legal framework. In fact, the Union environment ministry has so far released six draft notifications asking the states—Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu—to finalise the area. The most recent draft notification was issued on July 31, 2024, a day after the Wayanad landslides. “So we have a legal framework, but we need clarity on the regions where it needs to be implemented,” says C R Bijoy, a re-searcher in resource conflicts, based in Tamil Nadu.
Instead, there appears to have been a concerted effort by states to further reduce the ESA. After the Kasturirangan report sparked protests in Kerala, the state sought an exemption.
Kerala subsequently set up its own committee to identify an acceptable ESA area, recommending that human-inhabited areas, agricultural lands and plantations in the ESA villages be exempted. The report recommended reducing the ESA area in the state from 13,108 to 9,993.7 sq km. The Union environment ministry accepted this and issued its first notification to finalise the ESA boundaries on March 10, 2014. Subsequent notifications issued by the Union environment ministry in 2015, 2017 and 2018 to identify ESA regions lapsed without consensus.
In 2018, the Centre accepted Kerala’s recommendations and amended the 2013 directions under Section 5 of the EPA to reduce the ESA area by almost 5 per cent from the Kasturirangan committee’s recommendation to 56,825 sq km.
In the fifth draft notification to identify ESA boundaries, issued on July 6, 2022, the Centre revealed that it had set up a committee to re-examine the suggestions of the state governments, considering the conservation aspects of the disaster-prone ecosystem and the region’s rights, privileges, needs and developmental aspirations. On July 18, 2022, Union environment ministry informed the Lok Sabha that the Centre had not been able to issue the final notification because the states were demanding a further reduction of the ESA area.
This lack of consensus is surprising because the Kasturirangan committee was mandated to balance ecological conservation with sustainable development. “I do not think politicians have read the findings properly,” says T V Ramachandra, scientific officer, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. A 2017 article in The Economic and Political Weekly by researchers from the Mahatma Gandhi University and the Central University of Kerala highlights that the opposition was fuelled by asymmetric information, a lack of awareness of the report’s contents and misinformation campaigns.
The Kasturirangan committee report, in fact, calls for mechanisms that incentivise people to protect forests. It recommends innovative financial solutions such as debt-for-nature swaps (a state’s debt is waived in exchange for investments in environmental conservation), payment for ecosystem services and additional funds from the now-defunct Finance Commission for states that protect forests.
Not only has Kerala stalled the implementation of the report, but it has also, during the past decade, diluted its own mining laws. In 2017, the state amended the Kerala Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2015, to allow quarry sites deploying explosives to operate beyond 50 m from residential buildings and forestland, reducing the original cap of 100 m.
Kerala quarry operators opposed implementing a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order on July 21, 2020, that mandated quarries with and without explosives to maintain a distance of 200 m and 100 m from forestland. As a result, NGT constituted a joint expert committee, which in 2023 recommended that rock blasting should not be allowed within a radial distance of 150 m from houses and structures.
Still, on December 6, 2023, the then Union Minister of Mines, Coal, and Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi, told Lok Sabha that the High Court of Kerala permitted the existing quarries to continue operations at the 50-m distance. “The Department of Mining and Geology of Kerala is processing fresh applications only after obtaining necessary affidavits from the proponents that in the event of any adverse orders from the NGT, the same will be abided by them without objection,” he said.
The challenge does not end here. Many quarry sites in Kerala do not adhere to the Kerala Minor Minerals Concession Rules, 2015, particularly when it comes to backfilling the pits. The rules state that every permit holder should backfill the closed quarry using the topsoil removed during operations. If this is not feasible, the project proponents should properly fence the site using concrete or iron pillars and iron ropes. Quarry operators are also responsible for deploying scientific standards to restore and recover the original vegetation and improve the resilience of different ecosystems.
A 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report flags this issue. It notes that seven abandoned quarries had not been filled or trees planted. It further states that neither the Department of Mining and Geology nor the Kerala State Pollution Control Board maintains data comparing the number of trees planted after the expiry of the permit against those removed before quarrying. The report also found that five districts, including Wayanad, lacked a system for ensuring compliance. As a result, of the 27 quarries inspected in the state, 21 violated rules, including continuing operations in a quarry despite the permit expiring.
Kerala currently has 110 quarry permits (awarded for up to 12 years) and 444 quarry leases (awarded for up to 3 years), according to the state Department of Mining and Geology. Eleven out of 14 districts in Kerala are home to ESAs as identified by the Kasturirangan report. DTE analysis found 1,688 quarry sites across the state, with 90 of them spread across 123 ESA villages. These quarries exist at a time when the state has not only weakened its regulations but has failed to implement its mining laws properly. The tragic events of July 30 should serve as a stark reminder of the cost of ignoring these warning signs.
This was first published in the 1-15 September, 2024 Print edition of Down To Earth