The fury of Kerala floods

Kollavarsham, the new year of the Malayalam calendar, has dawned on the worst-possible note for the people of Kerala. The rain fury has decreased but not the danger of spills in several parts of Kerala from the overflowing dams. Malayalees, long used to a relatively efficient and responsive public infrastructure, have by all accounts never suffered such a dislocation in their lives. Smart-phones, a constant companion today, have fallen silent because of lack of electricity, water is contaminated and food scarce.  These are the normal hazards of a natural calamity and Kerala was unfortunate to face unprecedented monsoon frenzy. To put the situation in perspective, it received four times more rainfall than the 2013 Uttarakhand cloudburst, reckoned as the worst natural calamity since the 2004 tsunami.

Picking up the pieces will be even more agonising. Almost all the roads have been washed away, schools and houses submerged and power transmission pillars uprooted. It is standard to seek more attention from the Centre and Kerala should get more rescue personnel and facilities when PM Modi takes an aerial tour on Saturday.  The heartwarming examples of civic consciousness — officials working round the clock, temples, churches and madarsas turning into relief centres and fishermen and disaster relief personnel putting their lives on the line — need a major booster dose from the Centre, possibly declaring the floods as a national calamity.

But when the waters recede and Kerala begins picking up the pieces, its people must realise the price they have paid for resorts and commercial plantations — nine lakh hectare of forest land has been lost in the past 40 years. Most of the death toll is from Idukki. Besides being a watershed with a maze of dams, this is where most encroachment has taken place. The idea of environmentally sustainable development was sacrificed at the altar of corporate and individual avarice and party coffers. There are two months of respite before thulavarsham, the north-east monsoon, sets in. Kerala will need to demonstrate that it cannot be business-as-usual in its fragile highlands or the price to be paid in future will be heavier.