Poor community connectivity: Munnar nonetheless ill-prepared to alert calamities

Express News Service

The solely warning Pettimudi residents obtained about approaching swirl of muddy water that engulfed their settlement on August 6, final 12 months, was a odor of moist earth shortly earlier than it swept away their homes.  A 12 months after the tragedy, Munnar nonetheless doesn’t have a fool-proof system to alert any calamity.  

Munnar, encompassing precipitous hills, is used to cope with mudslips and flood. A majority of the lanes, the place the tea property employees reside, are situated in distant places that too in dangerous terrains, leaving many areas poorly ready for a catastrophe of this magnitude. 

“There was no landslip warning in the settlement on that day,” mentioned Murukeshan, one of many fortunate few who managed to flee the tragedy. Although the catastrophe struck late at evening, two males who escaped may solely alert public and authorities solely by 6am subsequent day as there was no electrical energy or cell phone protection. 

There is a climate observatory, arrange by the authorities of National Center for Earth Science Studies in 2017 in Rajamala. But because the space doesn’t have sturdy community protection, officers can’t accumulate knowledge on a real-time foundation.

“Officials monitor rainfall, rainfall size distribution, cloud cover, soil moisture, wind speed etc, which are basic parameters to predict the possibility of a landslide,” a scientist with the NCESS mentioned.  Munnar panchayat vice-president Marsh Peter mentioned authorities have initiated steps to get BSNL 3G community protection within the space. Vijayakumar, former Idukki district panchayat member mentioned even because the officers declare that they’ve supplied 3G facility, it is not going to work throughout energy outage.