A man cleans his house as water recedes in Kerala. (PTI file photo)

After torrential rains inundated most of ‘God’s own country’, receding water and generous aid and relief from across India has allowed agony stricken Malayalis to build their homes and lives anew. The calamity claimed close to 400 lives. Many are still missing.

Thanks to the traditional importance given to education, Malayalis have spread themselves across the country and abroad in a range of professional activities. It is heartening to find these outstation Malayalis sparing no effort in reaching out to the distressed population.

As the diaspora, NGOs and governments pitch in to help, it is time to fasten accountability on the LDF government headed by Pinarayi Vijayan , who surprisingly has been spared of criticism by the intelligentsia for displaying utter unpreparedness in taking steps to prevent, minimise and manage a disaster that was warned of more than seven years ago by scientist Madhav Gadgil, who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Committee formed by the environment ministry.

“Yes, there is intense rainfall which has caused this. But I am quite convinced that developments in the state over the last several years have materially compromised the ability to deal with events like this and greatly increased the magnitude of the suffering that we are seeing today. Had proper steps been taken, the scale of the disaster would have been nowhere near what it is today,” Gadgil said last week.

Comparing the situation in Kerala with similar disasters in Odisha in the past two decades is instructive. In October 1999, Super Cyclone Pradip battered coastal districts of Odisha with wind speeds of up to 250 kmph for 36 hours accompanied by torrential rains and 7-10 metre high tidal waves. The toll was a calamitous 10,000 (unofficially 50,000). Nearly 13 lakh people were affected, 3.15 lakh cattle perished. The Union government sent a grant of Rs 300 crore.

Then J B Patnaik-led Congress government’s faltering and stuttering relief and rehabilitation work was a lesson for the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government which followed it. In October 2013, when intense tropical storm ‘Phalin’ struck Odisha with violent wind speeds and incessant rains, the state machinery was prepared to face the challenge.

It evacuated 6 lakh people from coastal areas to safe shelters stocked with 10 lakh food packages. Only 44 lives were lost. More than two lakh houses were flooded and over 1,000 villages were inundated.

The LDF government should have seen the 2014 Kerala floods caused by an intense pre-monsoon cyclonic activity between April 1 and May 8 as a precursor to the present disaster and stayed in readiness. The 2014 floods had claimed 123 lives. Refusal to learn from the past and unwillingness to stay prepared for disaster management cost Kerala nearly 400 lives.

Now, the state government is blaming the Centre for not giving enough grants, even after it released Rs 600 crore and promised more after assessment of the damage. It has made an issue of unsubstantiated claims of the UAE’s Rs 700 crore pledge for Kerala being blocked by the Centre.

In the Supreme Court, the state accused Tamil Nadu of worsening the flood situation by sudden release of large quantities of water from Mullaperiyar dam on August 15. Tamil Nadu counter-accused Kerala of ignoring repeated warnings about impending release and using the tragedy to force lower permissible water level of the dam at 142 feet. The SC had to tell both states to cooperate at the time of tragedy.

The Kerala chief secretary told the SC that almost 50% of 1,564 villages were inundated. However, he said of the 3.48 crore population, only

16% or 54 lakh were flood-affected. He did not give details of how many state disaster response personnel were deployed. But credit must go to the 1,400-odd fishermen who brought their boats from the sea and ventured into remote parts to help with the rescue operation.

According to the chief secretary, NDRF deployed 59 rescue teams with 207 boats, Army had 23 columns with 104 boats, Navy had 94 rescue teams with 94 boats, Coast Guard 36 teams with 76 boats, IAF provided 22 helicopters and 23 fixed wing aircraft, BSF provided two companies and CRPF deployed 10 teams. Kerala pressed into service 4,100 fire and rescue services personnel with 69 rubber boats. Odisha deployed 244 firemen with 69 rubber boats in the rescue operation.

A ‘all hands on deck’ approach was a necessity given the dimension of the disaster, part of which was man-made according to Gadgil given the rampant mining and degradation of environment in Western Ghats within Kerala. While Malayalis rose to the challenge, the LDF government appeared lacking.

The state government’s unpreparedness stems from its disregard for the SC judgment in N D Jayal case [2004

(9) SCC 362], where it had said, “Disaster management means all aspects of planning, coordinating and implementing all measures which are necessary or desirable to prevent, minimise, overcome or to stop the spread of a disaster upon the people or any property and includes all stages of rescue and immediate relief.

“It is a proven fact that lot of human suffering and misery from large number of disasters can be mitigated by taking timely actions, planning and preventive measures. It is possible only through wellfunctioning disaster management frame-work. Our present relief centred reactive approach after the striking of disaster need to be changed into preparedness oriented proactive attitude.”

That was the difference between the proactive approach of the Naveen Patnaik government against the Vijayan government’s reactive approach, even though nature had served a warning in 2014 through flash floods across Kerala. When humanitarian aid and help is pouring in, the LDF government is expected to do its bit. Importantly, it must prepare a comprehensive disaster management plan and create a mechanism to stay in preparedness to minimise loss of lives in case of a natural disaster.

