VIJU B. <br/><br/>
Floods, landslides and ecological devastation 

 - Seminar: Cradle of Diversity   
 - 735, Nov, 2020: p.52-56 
<br/><br/> ONE of the most heart-wrenching images of the horrific landslide that occurred at Pettimudy in Idukki on 6 August this year, was that of Kuvi, a pet dog, that remained at the spot for days, refusing to eat, searching for Dhanuska, a toddler buried in the rubble. Kuvi used to play with Dhanuska and had a special bonding with the child. Pettimudy is part of Rajamala hills in Idukki district’s Western Ghat region in Kerala, where 70 people, mostly tea plantation workers with Kannan Devan Hills Plantation, lost their lives in the landslides as their residential quarters went under the rubble.<br/><br/>This tragedy is a grim reminder of how people inhabiting the Western Ghats region have become increasingly vulnerable to major disasters in the form of landslides, floods and droughts.<br/><br/>The Pettimudy landslide is not an isolated phenomenon that occurred in Western Ghats region this year. On the same night another landslide occurred at Talacauvery temple, the origin of Cauvery River at Brahmagiri hills in Kodagu district of Karnataka. Five people were killed, including the chief priest of the temple. Ten days later, on 16 August, Godavari, the second longest river in the country that originates from Western Ghats, got flooded drowning many villages in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Mumbai witnessed one of its worst floods with many areas in south Mumbai getting submerged under water. - Reproduced