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HomeOpinionsKerala’s hour of tragedy - after rescue, time to step back and think

Kerala’s hour of tragedy – after rescue, time to step back and think

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sajith
sajith
I am into the Biophama Industry! In my spare time I do “junk reading” on anything I lay my hands on, from Politics to Sports to Pop Sociology& Psychology.

Heart-breaking visuals from Kerala on News Channels where people who have lost everything literally breaking down “saying they have lost everything with the floods having swept away their life earnings” tell a story of its own in Kerala. This will definitely hurt and the pain of what they have lost will linger for long. Kerala “in its life time” has not faced such mass displacements and loss of property- we always thought that would be the fate of others, somewhere in distant North India or in the North-East of India.

We, in Kerala would never have imagined that in our life time we would see “War-Time operations” of such scale& magnitude by the India Army, Navy and Air force battling a natural calamity – something we saw in Uttarakhand or in Kashmir. The long queues in relief camps housing thousands of the displaced, jostling for food and clothing was something Kerala and its populace would never have imagined would come to their doorsteps.

I do fervently hope after the rescue operations and rehabilitation operations, Keralites – it’s government and populace – take a long hard and introspective look into what can be done to take care of our state and it’s environment.

The Madhav Gadgil report for protection of the “Western Ghats & it’s environment” was vehemently opposed by certain groups bringing in religion, vote bank politics and mindless rampant consumerism. The most affected areas in Kerala because of these floods are Munnar, Idukki, Chengannur, among others.

Remember that there was a campaign three years ago for an “Aranmula Airport” which would have been reality, had it not been opposed tooth and nail by environmental groups. Think of the consequences had that airport been commissioned in Aranmula? Tough questions would have to be answered and sought after.

We can’t live in denial on the rampant destruction of nature by means of quarrying, the resort mafia and the greed that has destroyed the Western Ghats.

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sajith
sajith
I am into the Biophama Industry! In my spare time I do “junk reading” on anything I lay my hands on, from Politics to Sports to Pop Sociology& Psychology.
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