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God could not save its own country...Humans, over the years, have destroyed its pristine nature despite all warnings - Madhav Gadgil et al. 

Over 400 people have died; numerous dams have burst; rivers have changed courses; airports have closed; and boats are the only mode of transport in cities. Army was called to rescue the marooned. The local media, for once, stopped the blame game and acted as SOS centres 24X7 and participated in the rescue act too. The disaster in the south recalls what happened in the north in Uttarakhand a few years ago.

Those who “chase” or track the monsoon course of India know how it rises from the Arabian Sea, hits the Agumbe region of the Western Ghats, pours first in Kerala, scales over the western mountains and then quickly spreads over rest of the country after reaching the foothills of the Himalayas. But who would have thought that the rains would get stuck in the coastal state this time and break all records of rainfall there? Climate is changing globally and as experts say, it is primarily man-made. Rainfall in the rest of the country has been erratic and as records will later show, the country’s agriculture is likely to be affected.

The social media has been tracking the Kerala disaster from the start; the mainstream media, though slow to swing into action, is now contributing by describing the magnitude of the destruction and some by appealing to raise funds. But why do the media fail, repeatedly, to participate in timely interventions especially when the issue is environmental?

Both the state and the central governments rejected the major recommendations of Madhav Gadgil’s report of 2011 for creating three levels of ecologically sensitive zones in the Western Ghats; banning all mining activities and scrapping the two major hydro-electric projects in the sensitive zones of the environmental ‘hot spot’, that is Western Ghats. Instead, the governments instituted another survey under Kasturirangan in 2013, which negated Gadgil; reduced the ‘sensitive area’ to one-third of what Gadgil recommended; and wanted the hydro-projects be built under certain conditions. Media failed to realise on time the implications of such a change in policy and did not adequately contribute to awareness, because the environment still remains low down in the priorities of media coverage, as in the case of the government. Gadgil’s report, however, expressed ‘surprise’ at the high level local awareness among the people about the implications of these ‘developmental’ projects in the sensitive ecological zones. In fact, he recommended that such development projects should only be taken up in consultation with the local people and not be imposed as a ‘top-down’ policy.

So now when the tragedy has struck, why blame Nature or God? Kerala will never be the same again. The chief minister has called for ‘rebuilding Kerala’; funds are trickling in. But the supply will never match the demand – so huge has been the destruction. We see the media putting unnecessary focus on whether the grants  from the Gulf countries (where a large section of immigrants from Kerala live and whose remittances have changed the economy of the state in recent years) will be allowed in by the Centre. Instead, the mainstream media would do well to stay with the local people (as the regional media has done) and try to create a greater awareness so that the ‘top down’ policies of the governments do not permanently damage the sensitive regions of the Western Ghats. Otherwise such disasters will keep happening.