Kerala floods; not so of a natural catastrophe

A brief overview of this situation would make it crystal clear that the floods that caused havoc in Kerala were not just a result of nature’s wrath, human doings invested mutually with natural forces.
Many would peg floods as a natural calamity but what we don't know is that it is triggered by our certain acts that we do to nature. Kerala floods were no exception. At this point of time nothing that happens in nature can be classified as natural anymore.
This is not the first time when Kerala received excessive rainfall. In the year 1924, Kerala was wrecked with much more intensified rainfall but the impact was not as much as it has been, this time around. The sole reason is the current ecological deterioration of this south Indian state.

According to a report, between the years of 1920 to 1990; Kerala has lost about 40% of its forest cover i.e. 40% of its protection shield against such calamities. Rainfall just worked as a trigger to this whole catastrophe. The actual fundamental of this disaster was already set up when both, central and state government denied the reports of the Gadgil Committee. The western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel's( AKA Gadgil committee )reports suggested that excessive urbanization was not Kerala’s cut of tea, the committee made sure to mention in its report that building of more dams in the state would affect it adversely in the future. They also wanted Western ghats to be divided into 3 ecological sensitive zones.  The reports were totally against materialistic development in the state at the cost of environment but the panel denied this report by saying that it was anti developmental and thus against the interests of the citizens and so the government paid no heed to this committee. The government went forward towards Kasturirangan Committee, which was too lenient when compared to the Gadgil committee.

Even after knowing about its sensitivity, multiple dams were build. Today, Kerala have 42 dams which are much more than needed. Idukki, the most flood affected district alone have 12 dams. Not just dams but the rivers in Kerala are misguided too, the route of the rivers are diverted for the sake of construction. Rivers that used to simply flow to Arabic sea are now stuck in the land. As a result, the Kochi airport is submerged in water due to flood. Nature is not something that can be manipulated.

The Dam management authority is also to be held accountable for the damage caused by the uneven and unplanned release of water from these 42 dams, which proved to be fatal and severe. The thing is Dam authority was also clueless about the monsoon showers, if they would have released water before rain, then there would have been scarcity of water during summers. Both the choices were equally unpleasant for the authority.

Although there is always an inbuilt mechanism in nature to overcome such situations. Kerala also had its protective layer in the form of forest and paddy production. Kerala was a giant, when it came to production of paddy but in last 30 years, the production of paddy has gone down to 1.5 lakh hectares from 8 lakh hectares and the forests were also sacrificed for the sake of development. Hence the capacity of the soil to absorb water has been lost too. This is a major reason why Kerala is facing exacerbate level of destruction.

We can thus state that the Kerala flood is a result of our doing. We must take this as an alarm sign, as even worse things await us, if we do not wake up now!