By Albert Thyrniang
As the torrential rain poured incessantly, rivers began to flow above danger levels, dams and reservoirs were filled to the brim and had to be opened, the worst floods in more than a hundred years had occurred and millions were stranded. Vehicles were carried away like toys, homes submerged and swept away, hills and mountains gave way, huge landslides brought downs buildings burying hundreds alive. More than 300 loss their lives; lakhs were forced to take shelter in relief camps. Such was the magnitude of the calamity. The total loss is estimated at more than 20,000 crores. As the catastrophe was unfolding before our very eyes through television, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc hate messages of all sorts also flooded the social media platforms.
Some people know the exact causes of the flood. One reason they point out is women’s entry in Sabrimala Temple. It may be reminded that women had demanded entry into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple and the matter reached the Supreme Court. Recently the Apex Court reserved its verdict on the petitions praying for entry of menstruating women into the ancient temple dedicated to lord Ayyappan and located in Palakkad district of Kerala. Some think lord Ayyappa is angry with the people of Kerala and sent the rain and the floods as punishment for demanding entry of women into the well known pilgrimage centre located on a hilltop at an altitude of 1260 m.
This absurd and bizarre explanation is not limited to ordinary social media users. Unfortunately educated individuals like S Gurumurthy, an RSS ideologue, who was recently appointed to the board of the Reserve Bank of India, subscribes to this ridiculous view. “Supreme court judges may like to see if there is any connection between the case (floods) and what is happening in Sabarimala. Even if there is one in a million chance of a link people would not like the case decided against Ayyappan,” he thundered in his tweet. This sexist commentary is shameful and condemnable.
The second cause, according to hate mongers and fanatics, is beef eating. Beef consumption in Kerala is legendary and an intrinsic part of the Kerala identity. Despite the 55% Hindu population in the state, beef is served at home, hotels, restaurants and in roadside shops. They enjoy beef prepared deliciously with coconut, curry leaves, cinnamon, cloves, coriander powder and roasted chilly. No wonder the BBC in one of its reports in 2016 called ‘Kerala a state obsessed with beef fry’. Hindus, Muslims and Christians can be seen sitting at one table enjoying over a plate of beef fry and parantha transcending all differences of caste and class. This has led to insensitive social media users to hatefully declare that the people of Kerela deserve this harsh punishment for eating the flesh of the mother cow. Bigotry and hate were spread to justify that Malayalis faced God’s wrath because they eat beef and warned them to stop the age old food habit or else future calamities will re-occur.
The BJP and other Hindutva outfits have been waging a war against beef consumption and many states have imposed a ban on cow slaughter but Kerala has been vehemently opposing it. Therefore, sick minded dogmatists even celebrate at the suffering of the flood-hit people of the Southern state. This is appalling to say the least.
Natural disasters happen all over the world. No country escapes natural disasters. No unscientific causes should be attributed to any calamity. In recent memory India was a victim of terrible disasters. The 1999 Odisha cyclone caused destruction amounting to US$4.44 billion, the 2001 Gujarat earthquake of 7.7 magnitude killed more than 20,000 people, the 2013 Odisha cyclone incurred a loss of about Rs 42.4 billion, the 2004 deadly tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed over 227,898 people in 14 countries (including India) and the 2015 Tamil Nadu floods left more than 500 people dead are mentioned here. If the Kerala floods are attributed to gods’ anger, what caused the above mentioned horrific calamities? Natural causes are the answers. No one likes attributing religious reasons for disasters. The realm of God or religion is neither visible nor verifiable and therefore, attributing them as causes for the misfortune of others is abominable.
Appeals for help for relief and rebuilding, met heart rendering responses of solidarity and empathy from all corners. But there are also outrageous and ugly responses from people who instead appealed against financial or other form of assistance for the ‘accursed people of Kerala’.
A group of them condemned that the people of Kerala need no help because they are Christians and Muslims. Almost half of the population of Kerala are non-Hindus. Therefore, for them they can suffer. No donation or contribution should be sent to them. These are more than stupid and insensitive comments. The floods did not discriminate against Hindus or Muslims or Christians. All were affected as water doesn’t recognize religion. The population of Kerala suffered and is suffering. Shockingly people in the social media asked viewers not to make donation to Kerala because of the large Christians and Muslims population or even if they do, donate to organisations that exclusively help Hindus. Others warned that funds will be used to convert Hindus to Christianity or Islam.
Another set of hard hearted people campaigned for non-assistance because Keralites are ‘naxals’. A person who identifies himself as a faculty at Art of Living tweeted, “Don’t donate money as it will not be used for relief work. It will be used against our country. It will be given for naxals and JNU ‘thugs’”. Another person wrote, “Kerala and JK are anti-national states. No need fund.” These sort of responses to a natural tragedy are shocking in the 21st century. Humanity and solidarity is the only concern at this very challenging time for the people of Kerala and no other consideration should cross our mind.
As for the causes, instead of attributing the floods to imaginary and illusionary reasons a scientific analysis is required. According to environmentalists the whole situation is aggravated by careless human activities like extensive quarrying, mushrooming of high-rising structures, deforestation and poor policy decisions. The devastation in “God’s Own Country” might have been a ‘man-made disaster’. According to scientists, the nature’s fury that wreaked havoc was due to unhindered human interference with nature.
After the Chennai floods of 2015, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that was tabled in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, stated that 2015 floods was a “man-made disaster”. Apparently no lesson was learned. Another report was submitted in 2011 by experts headed by Madhav Gadgil, an ecologist and founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, recommended protecting the ecologically-fragile Western Ghats, including Kerala. Therefore, environmental scientists like VS Vijayan, an expert on Western Ghats, said, “Kerala is going through a man-made calamity. The impact should have been limited if the Gadgil committee report, aimed at protecting ecologically-fragile mountain ranges, was implemented.”
Reports say that the Gadgil Committee, also known as Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel had made specific recommendations like stopping mining and quarrying in specific areas to avoid potential disasters. It also recommended restrictions on deforestation and unhindered use of land for construction. The committee had proposed that 140,000 kilometres of the Western Ghats be classified into three zones according to the need for the ecological protection of the areas. The Kerala government rejected the committee report and never adopted any of its recommendations. Therefore, environmentalists say that some of the regions which bore the brunt of the Kerala flood fury was due to the total disregard for the environment.
Several other environmentalists are now blaming the unabated quarrying, mushrooming of high-rise buildings as part of tourism promotion and illegal forest land acquisition by private enterprises as the main causes for the catastrophe. Hence, it makes sense to say that the Kerala calamity was also man-made. The warnings were written on the wall. Had they been paid heed to, the scale of the destruction would have been mitigated.
The focus now is on the aftermath of the 2018 calamity. Recovery will be long. Rebuilding will be hard and challenging. The loss ravaged by this natural or man-made calamity is humongous. Obviously Kerala needs help. Individual or organisational donation should be encouraged and welcomed. Even if one wishes not to contribute, it is fine but asking others not to send assistance because they don’t like the people of Kerala is despicable. It is against humanity.