The devastating floods and landslides in Kerala, on the foothills of the Western Ghats, have many lessons for other states to learn  especially in the North East. The floods, one of the worst in a century, seem to be a result of tampering with the sensitive ecology of the Western Ghats about which Madhav Gadgil, the scientist who was entrusted to study the ecology of the Western Ghats, warned way back in 2012 in his report submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The report was neither accepted nor put into public domain by the then UPA Government since barring Gujarat, Congress or its allies were ruling in the other five states through which the Western Ghats run like pearls in a string alongside the gurgling waters of the Arabian sea. But all the states opposed the Gadgil report as they were under the influence of those who control power that be in respective state capitals as well as the national capital. 

The Gadgil report had pointed out that many reservoirs in the Western Ghats states, especially those in the steep valleys, were silting up prematurely due to massive encroachment and deforestation of catchment areas. “Idukki dam in Kerala is a classic case wherein the entire catchment encroached along the dam construction,” the report said. (It may be noted the entire town of Kochi, Ernakulam and other downstream areas of the dam was flooded as it opened all the five shutters at one go without any warning. This was the case with many other dams in the recent floods.) Gadgil had identified danger zones and suggested a halt to all human activities in those areas. But, Kerala with its Gulf boom of the last three decades of the last millennium and with 860 population density per km never heeded to the warnings. For construction, quarrying went on unabated from the Western Ghats which had now triggered more landslides during the floods which killed more people.

Consider that the Western Ghats is a 150 million-year-old mountain range. We in Arunachal Pradesh are sitting on a 15 to 16 million years old range. The state is also planning mega dams, exploitation of minerals, etc from the mountain ranges. Kerala’s case should be an eye-opener before we tamper with our fragile mountain ranges.