ISRO’s Big Revelation: An Old Landslide Triggered Wayanad’s Latest Tragedy

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released images showing the severe landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district that have resulted in at least 201 deaths and around 300 missing, as per the state government’s latest updates.

The high-resolution images from ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Center reveal that heavy rainfall triggered a major debris flow around Chooralmala town. The landslide started from an area affected by an older landslide. “The crown zone is an area activated from an older landslide,” NRSC said, according to Hindustan Times.

The flow widened the Iruvanipuzha River, causing it to breach its banks and damage surrounding homes and infrastructure. Images taken before the landslide by Cartosat 3 on May 22, 2023, and after the event by VHR RISAT SAR on July 31, showed the scale of the damage. The 3D model of the landslide’s crown showed that a large portion of the hill slope was impacted. The landslide covers an area of 86,000 square metres, stretching approximately 8 km.

Climate change, fragile terrain and loss of forest cover have reportedly created the perfect recipe for devastating landslides in Wayanad where 308 people have been confirmed dead, and over 200 are missing.

According to ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre’s landslide atlas, 10 out of the 30 most landslide-prone districts in India are in Kerala, with Wayanad ranking 13th. The Western Ghats and Konkan hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra) cover 0.09 million square kilometres prone to landslides. The high population and household density in Kerala’s Western Ghats increase the vulnerability of its inhabitants.

A 2021 study highlighted that all landslide hotspots in Kerala are in the Western Ghats, particularly in Idukki, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram districts. About 59 per cent of landslides in Kerala occurred in plantation areas.

Another 2022 study revealed that Wayanad’s forest cover decreased by 62 per cent between 1950 and 2018, while plantation areas increased by 1,800 per cent. Initially, 85 per cent of Wayanad was under forest cover until the 1950s.