Are Humans To Be Blamed For Deadly Landslides In Kerala, India? A Wake-Up Call

There hangs a stillness in the air, so thick and unyielding, as though nature herself is holding her breath. The lush landscapes and tranquil hills of Wayanad in Kerala (India) have now turned into a grim pointer toward the unpredictable fury of nature. On July 30, the region was swept by a cascade of mud and debris, burying as many as 200 lives and all dreams. Who, or what, was the culprit? Not just the relentless monsoon but something far more insidious: climate change.

The monsoons, once a predictable rhythm of life in India, are now like a tempestuous lover—unpredictable, dangerous, and deadly. According to one recent study by the World Weather Attribution group, human-caused climate change increased the strength of the torrential rains responsible for the landslides in Wayanad by about 10%. That is not a statistic in a world where each percentage point represents the difference between life and death; it is a number that encapsulates the cost our actions have represented.

The Kerala hills have always been a place of retreat, and when the monsoon came to these parts of India, it rained on the hills, with water coursing down the slopes, gradually nourishing the earth, and filling rivers and reservoirs. But that was a day when the rain just wasn't soft. More than 572 millimeters or 23 inches within 48 hours, more than twice the amount forecasted, did fall. It was as if the heavens opened up with a vengeance and let flow a deluge that the land simply couldn't absorb.

But what caused the rain to become so deadly this time? The answer lies in a lethal combination of factors. It highlighted that one-day monsoon downpours in the region have increased in weight by 10% due to climate change. This may sound like a minuscule factor, but in nature's delicate balance, it was enough to provoke a disaster of unimaginable proportions. It turns out that the soil, softened and caked by weeks of heavy rain, just gave way, the worst landslide disaster Kerala had seen since the floods of 2018, which took more than 400 lives.

Climate change has turned the monsoons into a double-edged sword. While on one hand, rains provide a respite by helping in growing crops and the water supply, they have become quite unpredictable and intense these days, turning out to be a threat to life and property. Wayanad landslides are only the newest in India's list of weather-related catastrophes—a country that is pretty familiar with nature's fury. From scorching heat waves to cyclones and floods, the climate crisis is making them more frequent and intense.

The Human Hand

Yet, to blame the rains alone would be to overlook the human factors that seem to have compounded disaster here. Wayanad, like many parts of Kerala, has been under the lash of development over the last couple of decades. Unrestrained tourism, over-development, and large-scale deforestation have robbed the hills of their natural defense mechanisms. The forests that had stabilized the soil such that it acted as a buffer against landslides have been destroyed for the construction of infrastructures and for agricultural purposes. Another major contribution is quarrying, which has weakened the slopes and made them prone to collapse.

In the headlong rush into progress, we have ignored a simple truth: nature always strikes back. The landslides in Wayanad are not just a result of heavy rainfall but years of environmental neglect. The tragedy serves as a grim reminder that economic development at the cost of the environment isn't feasible. As the study pointed out, minimize deforestation, regulate quarrying, and reinforce slopes that are vulnerable—some of the primary steps to prevent such a disaster in the future.

The report does not just look back; it is also a stark warning for the future. If global warming rockets to 2 degrees Celsius, Kerala's one-day bursts of rain could become 4% heavier. The implications of this are terrifying: landslides like that in Wayanad could become not just more frequent, but de facto common, turning the monsoon from a season of life into one of death.

"But this is not just a Kerala problem. Across India, and indeed the world, there's a new map and reshaping of the weather patterns into something we're about to understand. The report by the World Weather Attribution group should, therefore, be a wake-up call to action by the governments of the world to take the threat of climate change seriously—this means mitigation efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, yes, but this also means adaptation.". It does not lessen the vulnerability of the communities unless improved systems for early warning are developed, the infrastructures are strengthened, and sustainable land use practices are put in place.

The Cost of Inaction

The question we need to ask ourselves as a world facing up to climate change is, how many more people will have to die before we act? It is not that the case of landslides in isolation to Wayanad; it fits into a bigger trend of disasters driven by climate that will become ever more common. And where the extent of the challenge may seem overwhelming, the cost of inaction is far too high.

What happened in Wayanad was nothing short of a tragedy and ought to serve as a wake-up call for India and for the whole world. We stand on an inflection point today; the choices that we make now could really define the future of our world. Will we go down the path of destruction, or will we take into account the warnings and map a new way before it is too late?

The landslides in Kerala stand as a grim reminder that nature will hit back if stretched beyond a limit. What else is this, if not a moment to act? Otherwise, we may find that the next disaster is not only inevitable but far worse than anything we have ever seen before.