Wayanad landslide: 'Politicians protecting illegal habitation and mining,' says Bhupender Yadav

Union Minister of Environment Bhupender Yadav on Monday blamed the Kerala government for illegal human habitation in Wayanad, where a landslide killed hundreds of people and displaced many. The death toll from the landslide, which hit the district in the early hours of July 30, has risen to 385. 

While responding to a question on whether it was a man-made disaster, the minister said: "It is an illegal protection to the illegal human habitation by the local politicians. Even in the name of tourism, they are not making proper zones. They allowed the encroachment of this area." 

Yadav said that the area where the landslide struck is a highly sensitive area and the central government has already constituted a committee headed by former Director General of Forests, Sanjay Kumar. "We feel it's purely a mistake by them (state government). There has been illegal human habitation and illegal mining activity in the protection of the local government. It is very shameful. They must protect nature and human lives also."

On Saturday, BJP MP Tejavi Surya also blamed encroachment in the area, claiming the state government was not acting under pressure from the religious groups. "What has happened in Wayanad is not a natural disaster," Surya said. "Starting from 2000 to now, this year in January, multiple panel reports, government organizations, scientific organizations, and IIT Delhi kept warning the state government against the rampant illegal commercialisation, mining, and quarrying activities that are happening in the eco-sensitive zones in the western ghats. The Congress party rejected all of these things, did not take any action, nor has the UDF or LDF Government that was in power in Kerala all these years taken any action," he said, calling it a "Communist-Congress made disaster".

He pointed to rampant illegal commercial activities, mining, and quarrying in the Western Ghats as key factors ignored by successive governments despite repeated warnings. "This is the reality and today, at a time when hundreds of people have lost their lives, instead of trying to understand what actually went wrong, go to the root of the matter and try to scientifically address it, the Communist government wants to ban all scientific organisations, media organisations to come and understand what actually went wrong in Wayanad. This is a man-made, Communist-Congress-made disaster that has taken place in Wayanad."

Meanwhile, the Congress has asked the Centre to declare the devastating landslides a national disaster. However, the BJP on Sunday said that such a concept doesn't exist under central government guidelines, a policy unchanged since the UPA government's tenure. BJP's V Muraleedharan posted on his Facebook page a 2013 Parliament document in which then Minister of State for Home, Mullappally Ramachandran, stated that "there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster." 

"The concept of a 'national disaster' does not exist under the central government’s guidelines, a fact that has been the case since the UPA government’s tenure. This was explicitly stated by the then Union Home Minister, Mullappally Ramachandran, in a response to a question in the Lok Sabha on August 6, 2013," said Muraleedharan, who is also a former Union Minister.

"While there is no official designation of 'national disaster', each disaster is addressed according to its severity," he said, "and urged people not to attempt to create baseless controversies during this time of disaster."