Why do landslides keep occurring in Kerala's Idukki district?

On August 7, the hillside came crashing down on a tea estate in Kerala’s Idukki district, burying a settlement. Overnight, the green, wooded landscape turned into a mangled mass of earth and roots. The body count is rising – 55, according to the latest reports, while many remain missing.

Idukki, writes journalist and author Viju B

in his book, Flood and Fury, takes its name from the Malayalam word “idukku”, a place between two high spots. Narrow gorges run through this forested district in the Western Ghats. The Idukki arch dam stretches across the Periyar river, joining the Kuravan and Kurathi hills. Pettimudi in Rajamala, where disaster struck last week, is just a few kilometres from the hill station of Munnar and from the Eravikulam National Park.

Over the past six decades, the region has frequently been visited by landslides – in 2018, 2005, 1997, 1989, 1977, 1958. It is a history mapped out in tragedies, a history of climate change, deforestation and reckless building.

A changing monsoon

Scientists and researchers are yet to establish all the factors that could have contributed to this year’s landslide. But many point to the changing pattern of rainfall in Kerala over the last few years, which has led to catastrophic events.

In the 24 hours leading up to the...

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