Questions for seismologists and USGS

 DDF Editorial

The Wyanad landslide was bereft of a Disaster Mitigation blueprint

The landslide triggered by flash floods in Kerala’s Wyanad district on the intervening night of 30^th – 31^st July is not just a manifestation of Climate Change, but a human made disaster triggered by a state of policy paralysis. 

While the Home Minister announced in both Houses of Parliament that early warnings had repeatedly been sounded (ostensibly for the State Government to act on it), was received skeptically. Opposition Parties and some Members of Parliament have issued Breach of Privilege notice to the Speaker seeking action against the Home Minister for what they perceive as the Home Minister lying to Parliament.

Politics aside, early warnings issued by nodal agencies like say Indian Meteorological Department or the Central Water Commission, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, etc have to be followed up by established SOPs from anointed nodal agencies in something called “Inter Agency Coordination” in Disaster Risk Reduction parlance; - as stated in - the globally first of its kind disaster management legislation - passed by India within one year of the tragic Asian Tsunami:

According to SOP or Standard Operating Procedures in Disaster Risk Reduction parlance ... There is a functional responsibility assigned to many agencies:

• Food and Civil Supplies Department must stock up food rations @ 2 kilos of food stock per person per day for 60 days (of possible temporary sheltered accommodation in the event of preemptory evacuation); 
• Medical Preparedness calls for surgeons to stock on anesthesia, surgical equipment, first aid and medicines all indexed as per consumption patterns and public health profile; vaccinations, temporary operation theatres and electricity supply as well as medical supplies must all be lined up.

• Health and sanitation departments must sanitise all the toilets and bathrooms in the shelters even before an event triggers the disaster mitigation mechanism; and it has to stock up on sanitary products, menstrual hygiene products according to gender ratio. Phenyls, and toilet cleansing agents must be readied in proportion to maintenance schedules and vigour. 

• Water supply and electricity supply have to conform to code. Ideally nursing stations for New Mothers need to be anointed too. 

• Youth volunteer force personnel at Village, Taluq, District State levels have to be checked for updated training, and check-listed for imminent action. Mock drills on a monthly basis goes far in saving lives, livelihoods, landscape and livestock. This is well defined in India’s National Disaster Management Act and even the lowest rung village youth task force works well in disaster prone remote areas like Nicobar in the Andaman Nicobar Islands in forlorn Bay of Bengal. 

• So, well administered / well governed states like in South India should have no alibi to pass the buck if SOP was conformed to. If not, we need to investigate if SOP was triggered following Home Ministry’s Early Warning. Or was it only the Home Minister’s post dated early warning being lipped in Parliament? This incident underscores the need for a well-trained Media-scape to do its duty diligently. 
• Transport department must provide handicapped friendly infrastructure and logistics to evacuate the identified citizens who are in the direct line of welfare benefits before the imminent natural catastrophe strikes.

• Power supply and water supply companies have their SOPs too to ensure lives are saved at all cost. Disaster Mitigation calls for saving lives, livestock livelihoods and landscape. 
• Animal Husbandry department must calibrate insurance premiums as per livestock population well before catastrophe strikes. Best practices like whether to tether livestock or not before Zero Hour has to be broadcast in the days leading up to the catastrophe. 

• District administration has to prepare multi purpose shelters and should be in-charge of evacuation of identified evacuees including differently abled and more vulnerable citizens. District Administration has the ultimate responsibility to execute all SOPs – including – macabre as it may sound – body bags for disposal of the departed souls. 

• Mortuaries must be sanitised and anointed with accoutrements like refrigeration/ air conditioning and necessary furniture like coffins, urns, candles, incense sticks, flowers, wreaths etc… in consonance with regional cultural practices. 
• Search and Rescue teams, canine squads, drone searches are all in the realm of the next stage after calamity strikes. But thorough check list based preparations can effectively save lives, livelihoods, landscape and livestock as Cyclone Phailin demonstrated in October 2013. Inter-agency coordination was the key to success in battling Cyclone Phailin. 

• In contrast, during the countdown to the Wyanad Landslide the Hon’ble Home Minister’s announcement in both Houses of Parliament that Early Warnings had been sounded seemed to have missed Inter Agency Coordination and instructions therefore - in the Public Domain seemed to be missing. Non- partisan, apolitical scrutiny affirms this. All the updates have to be published and broadcast by the hour as D Day approaches. All nodal agencies must publish early warnings on the official social media handles to offer transparency and credibility.

Nevertheless the Wyanad landslide offers a critical opportunity to review Climate detrimental ecological recipes for disasters like unsustainable mining and quarrying, and why has there been such a critical failure in protecting the Biodiversity Hotspot? We the People of India need and demand answers.

Compensatory afforestation funds – largely unutilized in state forest department accounts all over India indicate a large scale sham for decades. It is a no brainer to agree that without forest cover top soil is rendered lose and vulnerable to Landslides. How many tragic Climate Disasters will it take to account for compensatory afforestation to be implemented?

There are plush funds available – apart from Compensatory afforestation funds for tree planting. Only political will is missing. A sound Land Use Policy and perceptive schemes are necessary to universalize the passion for tree planting.

Uttar Pradesh’s “Ek Ped Ma Ke Naam” (one tree in your Mother’s name) can and ought to be replicated and scaled up by incentivizing tree plantation.

Unsustainable development quotient makes a powerful statement in favour of “Go Green” initiatives which are so sadly lacking in India’s polity and Public Administration. 

Climate friendly administration does not mean unlegislated subsidies to Renewable Industries and favoured entrepreneurs only: 

Climate Change manifests havoc on hydrometeorological events like Avalanches, Blizzards, Cloudbursts, Coastal Incursion, Cyclones, Droughts, Desertification, (differential impact of) El Niño Southern Oscillation, Epidemics, Floods, Flash Floods, Famine, Forest Fires, Fog, Hailstorm Landslides, Mudslides, Sand Storm, Storm Surge, Storms, Squalls, thunderstorms, Tsunamis, Volcanoes. This above list of hydrometeorological disasters are accentuated by El Nino and La Nina. Indians and the Indian scientific Establishment too are not too familiar with Volcanic Lahars or mud flows / volcanological calamities and their variable impacts.

Of immense and critical significance is the need to separate the impacts of El Nino and La Nina from Climate Change. The Wyanad landslide is symptomatic of La Nina that has not yet been clearly established by the scientific community if the current La Nina Current has begun its circumambulation this year.

Aadhar has been linked to Income Tax Returns and banking system, 

but no consumption patterns have been mapped. Thus despite 
COVID 19, Aadhar has not yield results for disaster mitigation. 

Scientific inputs and recommendations are key to legislating best practices and SOPs. Blame games are only part of reactionary discourse and leads us nowhere.

Malini Shankar, Digital Discourse Foundation