Lessons from Kerala Floods

What is the issue?

• The material loss due to the Kerala floods has been estimated at Rs. 26,000 crore.
• The event highlights the shortfalls in approaching the environmental issues, and calls for a more inclusive and holistic view.

What are the man-made causes?

• The short-sighted attempts in building man-made capital is a major cause.
• Buildings in hilly forests, wetlands and rivers encroachments, stone quarries are notable ones.

• This has ignored the degradation of natural, human and social capital.
• All these have played a significant role in exacerbating the effects of a natural event.
• The immediate task in the State is relief and rehabilitation.
• But it is equally crucial to simultaneously identify the root causes of the havoc.

What are the larger reasons?

• Law - The root causes prevail throughout the Western Ghats and, indeed, the rest of the country.
• The first is the breach of laws that have been established to safeguard natural capital.
• The Shah Commission inquired into the illegal mining in Goa.
• It observed that mining beyond permissible limits had caused serious damage.
• It has caused damage invariably to water resources, agriculture and biodiversity.
• Human capital - There is ignoring of serious degradation of human capital.
• This is in the context of effects on health and employment due to certain projects.
• E.g. there is overuse and pollution of water resources by the Coca Cola factory in the Plachimada panchayat in Palakkad district
• This has resulted in losses to the tune of Rs. 160 crore.
• Scientific knowledge and advice has been continually disregarded.
• E.g. the case of the proposed Athirappilly hydroelectric project
• An analysis showed that the project document had overestimated the availability of water.
• So the likely power production in no way justified the costs of construction and running of the project.

 What should be done?

• Approach - It is not advisable to continue to focus only on man-made capital.
• There is a need to enhance the sum total of man-made, natural, human and social capital.
• Communities - The genuine stake of the local communities should be acknowledged.
• The have a larger role in health of the ecosystems.
• They also have a better understanding of the working of ecological components.
• The 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments must be implemented in true spirit.
• Local bodies at the ward, gram panchayat, and town and city levels should be empowered.
• They must be allowed to prepare reports on the status of environment.
• They should also decide on how budget should be spent on the basis of these reports.
• BMCs - The government must set up Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) of citizens.
• It must empower them to document the status of local ecosystems and biodiversity resources.
• They must be given powers to levy collection charges for access to biodiversity.
• The intellectual property relating to community knowledge should be acknowledged.
• The BMCs should be given a central role in preparing environmental impact assessments.
• The assessments should reflect the true state of affairs instead of being the fraudulent documents as now.
• Forest - The government must fully implement the Forest Rights Act.
• This would empower not only tribals, but all traditional forest dwellers.
• They could control, manage and market non-timber forest produce.
• Governance - The current system is of protecting natural resources through negative incentives.
• This too is in the hands of a coercive and corrupt bureaucracy.
• This must give way to positive incentives that can be monitored in a transparent fashion.
• The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) proposes such incentives.
• E.g. payment of conservation service charges
• This could be employed in protecting biodiversity such as sacred groves, soil carbon enrichment, etc.

• Information - Government must stop distortion of environment and development-related information.
• It must begin uploading information suo moto on websites, as the Right to Information Act demands.
• It must initiate building a public and transparent database on environmental parameters.
• Ecology - The local knowledge, on levels of ecological sensitivity in different parts, should be utilised.
• This should be given importance alongside the expert committee reports.
• This would help in appropriate management regimes for regions of different levels of sensitivity.
• Technology - Government should begin to proactively use modern technologies in a user-friendly manner.
• The inputs from the various local bodies should be made available to all citizens.
• All these would ensure a broad-based inclusive approach to conservation and development.

Source: The Hindu