Kerala floods: Environmentalist Gadgil says it is also a man-made disaster

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), claimed today that the floods and landslides in Kerala is also a man-made disaster as illegal constructions on river beds and unauthorised stone quarrying contributed to the calamity.

The government-constituted WGEEP, in its 2011 report, had recommended that several areas in Kerala which come under the Western Ghats should be classified as ecologically sensitive. However, the state government had opposed the panel's recommendations.

While the magnitude of rainfall witnessed in Kerala this season was not exactly unprecedented, the flooding seen this time was never experienced before, Gadgil told PTI here.

"There are two components to it. One is the intense rainfall -- of a higher level than normal. One of my students has done a thesis on intense rainfall events in Kerala... He says certainly this year it's quite intense but not unprecedented," he said.

"He (the student) hails from Kerala. The experience of his father and grandfather is that earlier there was occasionally intense rainfall but never this level of flooding or landslides," the 76-year-old ecologist said.

The flooding has definitely brought to light existence of illegal stone quarries or large number of unauthorised constructions on river beds, he said, adding, "In this sense it is definitely a man-made calamity where intense rainfall and human intervention have made it a serious disaster."