Global warming, climate change and infrastructure construction in eco-fragile areas are triggering landslides that are more damaging than ever before
Since no one died in the several landslides in Mumbai in July 2022—unlike in previous years when tens of people died in landslides—they were not considered as 'major.' Image: Bhushan Koyande/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
On July 21, near the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala’s Idukki District within the Kottayam Forest Division area, a landslide washed away the nearly complete runway of an airstrip. Its construction in an eco-fragile area was bitterly opposed by local environmentalists and local villagers.
Local experiences told of escalating landslides that endanger their property and lives in the previously stable mountain slopes where their families have lived for generations. Nearby, in June 2022, I met headmaster Matthew Oomen on the slopes above his house which was flattened by a landslide last year. Two stone quarries were operational when a massive landslide killed his neighbours and washed away his home. Ten more quarries await approval despite the WGEEP Report of 2010, a CESS Report of 1998 and a Kerala Biodiversity Board Report of 2013 to ban quarrying and to protect the area as eco-fragile.
“The Western Ghats were formed when the landmass that became India broke away from Africa and was enroute towards Asia. A massive eruption of magma 65.5 million years ago, when India was over the spot where Mauritius lies today, led to their formation. They arose from the slow ooze of lava, which formed layer upon layer of rock, atop each other,” says Kurush F Dalal, director, INSTUCEN School of Archaeology, archaeologist and culinary anthropologist.
“The Western Ghats in Maharashtra consist mainly of basalt found extensively on the Deccan Plateau on the eastern side” says Hrishikesh Samant, associate professor of geology and vice principal, St Xavier’s College, Mumbai. “The basalt does not extend beyond Kolhapur in Maharashtra and Kerala has metamorphic rocks.”
Throughout the ages, landslides have been among the forces, which altered landscapes to a greater or lesser extent. Landslides occur when earth is moved from one place to another and can create mountains, valleys and lakes and definitively alter the topography of an area. Evidence of landslides has even been recorded on Mars and Venus. They have been known to occur in prehistory throughout the millennia and to shape the Earth as we know it today.