Kerala has to come up with bold imaginative, but humane, initiatives on environmental land management and new utilisation rules for land and water while maintaining the sustainability of drainage basins considering all related uncertainties, C.P. Rajendran, geoscientist and Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, has said.
“Land use zoning regulation that incorporates landslip susceptibility data should be made mandatory. The data that are made available by agencies like the Geological Survey of India indicate that out of the approximately 39,000 square km area of Kerala, the hill area having slopes higher than 10 degree constitutes about 19,000 square km and most of the scarps are thinly forested and further weakened by human activities,” he said in an email interview a day after the Rajamala landslip tragedy in Idukki district.
Prof. Rajendran says the landslip susceptibility map of the State will help the administrators to understand what type of landslip size is expected in different areas.
Scientific data
“I don’t think there is any dearth of scientific data on landslip vulnerability in the State although some specific geotechnical and geological studies may be required in some areas. To my knowledge, several detailed technical reports have been submitted to the State government at various times. It is high time that we came up with a programme that will enable us to use such data to mitigate the hazard,” he says.
He says it is important that both the local and State authorities should be relying on scientific reports on landslip vulnerabilities to reach decisions on land allocations for constructions in the hill districts of Idukki and Wayanad.
“In these decisions, local soil properties and slope stability should be important factors to be considered, rather than political expediency.
A blueprint that demarcates areas suitable for habitation and those to be left untouched should help in strictly implementing the basic tenets of land zonation,” he says.
Prof. Rajendran suggests a comprehensive master plan on land utilisation strategy based on a clear environmental vision at macro and micro levels to ensure that encroachment is minimal. “These documents should contain clear guidelines for constructions, including recommended designs of houses that will match with local landscape and scenery,” he says.