Expert panel on Wayanad landslides recommends keeping ‘unsafe’ areas habitat-free

Expert committee recommends keeping unsafe areas free of habitation, curbing construction, and implementing micro-zonation studies in landslide-prone zones.

An expert committee which studied the July 30 Mundakkai-Chooralmala landslides in Wayanad district has recommended that the areas marked as unsafe be kept free of habitation.

The panel led by John Mathai, former scientist, National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS), has also recommended curbs on construction and other forms of human intervention in the susceptible areas.

The panel’s September 25-dated report, “Mundakkai - Chooralmala Landslide, Wayanad district: A Comprehensive Study,” pegged the total area deemed as unsafe at 107.5 hectares, including 104 hectares affected by the landslide proper.

The total mass removed from the crown (the starting point of the landslide) till the Mundakkai Lower Primary School is about 25 lakh m3 while the mass removed from the crown region alone is about 3 lakh m3, according to the report.

The expert committee has suggested micro-zonation studies around identified landslide-susceptible zones. Probable locations of failure and their run-out should be documented in cadastral scale, and disseminated among local communities.

“Anthropogenic activities which allow saturation of the soil are to be strictly regulated in other critical/prone areas in the vicinity,” it noted.

Activities that should be avoided include blasting and quarrying close to susceptible areas, levelling of toes regions of slopes for construction, road construction on unstable slopes and impounding water on slopes and building swimming pools and theme parks for tourism in high hazard zones.