According to the report submitted by the district soil conservation officer, the landslips which killed 10 people in Wayanad was caused by human induced factors
Wayanad: A report submitted by the district soil conservation officer to the district collector cited human inducted factors as the cause of the deadly landslide in Puthumala, Wayanad, Kerala. A total of 10 people died and seven went missing in the landslide.
The report reads the large-scale felling of trees in the 1980s at Puthumala, Wayanad to set up medium scale private plantations had led to a phenomenon called piping that
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MyNation tried to contact the natives of Puthumala. Ajesh Kalpetta, a resident an activist said, "Mostly in Puthumala there are estates and the number of people living here is less. The 1980s incident is not so clear to me, but it might be a reason too. And I feel in the coming years too landslips can happen as, for development of new projects and construction, people cut trees in the locality".
Annapoorna Krishnan, another native of Puthumala, said, "To build a house too some trees have been cut years ago, but we never thought that those incidents would take the lives of people and cause our lives to come to a standstill".
Meanwhile, the death toll in Kerala floods has risen to 95.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts of Kerala on Thursday. Both the districts are likely to receive rainfall above 204 mm within 24 hours, the report said.
At the same time, orange alerts have been sounded in Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts. Over 2.25 lakh people have taken shelter in 1,318 relief camps across the state where the rains have triggered numerous landslides or caused floods in most of its 14 districts.
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