Town redesign plan in Chooralmala disastrous, claim environmentalists

At a time when the Kerala government is going ahead with the reconstruction of the landslide-hit areas of Chooralmala-Mundakkai in Wayanad and the rehabilitation of the residents, an environmental organisation has alleged that the plan to construct roads there is “part of a move to help the tourism lobby and contractors”.

Functionaries of the Sulthan Bathery-based Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi said on Saturday, quoting Revenue Minister K. Rajan, that roads had been proposed to be built in Chooralmala, spending ₹48 crore from the ₹120 crore allocated by the Union government. This is part of a town redesign project. They claimed that the plan would turn out to be disastrous. The samithi leaders said that at a time when the rehabilitation of the survivors of the tragedy was moving at a slow pace, contracts were being granted for building roads and bridges and for cleaning the Punnapuzha river. The ruling and Opposition fronts and the local MLA were all united in this and local elected representatives were complicit by their complacence. They claimed that constructing a road to Punchirimattam, the epicentre of the landslide that hit Mundakkai in July 2024, would lead to future disasters.

Mr. Rajan’s claim that a chain of roads was necessary for agriculture and land conservation even in places left behind by the survivors was absurd. It was aimed at protecting some vested interests. Only contractors and corrupt officials would be benefited by the removal of debris and trees stuck in the Punnapuzha. Nowhere in the world contracts had been granted to remove debris spread around lakhs of cubic metres from a disaster-struck area. There was no scientific basis to this impractical plan. The river would find its own course and create its own habitat, the samithi functionaries said.

They demanded that the people isolated by the disaster, who were living in ecologically fragile areas, should be rehabilitated first and their agricultural land should be acquired. The sum allocated by the Centre should be utilised for the purpose. The State government was yet to address the concerns of the 30-odd families of Padavettikkunnu.

Samiti leaders such as N. Badusha and M. Gangadharan, among others, alleged that the recommendations of the John Mathai panel set up by the State government were designed to benefit the tourism-mining lobby. Environmentalists and the survivors had earlier demanded that they be rejected. The government was now trying to implement them, the samiti leaders said.

The declarations by the Chief Minister and the Revenue Minister that a comprehensive rehabilitation package would be implemented and a township would be built for the landslide survivors remained on paper. The officials and others were interested only in securing financial gains out of the contracts given for the reconstruction work. Leaders of the ruling party and the Opposition, “fake” agricultural organisations, and religious heads were busy whitewashing the tourism lobby, which should be held mainly responsible for the landslide. The samithi leaders alleged that these leaders had forgotten the plight of the people. When tourism was affected after the tragedy, Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, MPs, Minister for Tourism P.A. Mohamed Riyas, and T. Siddique, MLA, were keen on reviving it. They are silent about the survivors, the samithi leaders added.